Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis

Huang, Jian; Zhao, Lei; Malik, Shikha; Gentile, Benjamin R.; Xiong, Va; Arazi, Tzahi; Owen, Heather A.; Friml, Jiří; Zhao, Dazhong

Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis

Huang J, Zhao L, Malik S, Gentile BR, Xiong V, Arazi T, Owen HA, Friml J, Zhao D. 2022. Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications. 13, 6960.

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DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-34723-6

Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed

Author

Huang, Jian; Zhao, Lei; Malik, Shikha; Gentile, Benjamin R.; Xiong, Va; Arazi, Tzahi; Owen, Heather A.; Friml, Jirí^ISTA ; Zhao, Dazhong

Department

Friml Group

Abstract

Germline determination is essential for species survival and evolution in multicellular organisms. In most flowering plants, formation of the female germline is initiated with specification of one megaspore mother cell (MMC) in each ovule; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this key event remains unclear. Here we report that spatially restricted auxin signaling promotes MMC fate in Arabidopsis. Our results show that the microRNA160 (miR160) targeted gene ARF17 (AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR17) is required for promoting MMC specification by genetically interacting with the SPL/NZZ (SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE) gene. Alterations of auxin signaling cause formation of supernumerary MMCs in an ARF17- and SPL/NZZ-dependent manner. Furthermore, miR160 and ARF17 are indispensable for attaining a normal auxin maximum at the ovule apex via modulating the expression domain of PIN1 (PIN-FORMED1) auxin transporter. Our findings elucidate the mechanism by which auxin signaling promotes the acquisition of female germline cell fate in plants.

Keywords

General Physics and Astronomy; General Biochemistry; Genetics and Molecular Biology; General Chemistry; Multidisciplinary

Publishing Year

2022

Date Published

2022-11-15

Journal Title

Nature Communications

Publisher

Springer Nature

Acknowledgement

We thank A. Cheung,W. Lukowitz, V.Walbot, D.Weijers, and R. Yadegari for critically reading the manuscript; E. Xiong and G. Zhang for preparing some experiments, T. Schuck, J. Gonnering, and P. Engevold for plant care, the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC) for ARF10,ARF16, ARF17, EMS1,MIR160a BAC clones and cDNAs, the SALK_090804 seed, T. Nakagawa for pGBW vectors, Y. Zhao for the YUC1 cDNA, Q. Chen for the pHEE401E vector, R. Yadegari for pAT5G01860::n1GFP, pAT5G45980:n1GFP, pAT5G50490::n1GFP, pAT5G56200:n1GFP vectors, and D.Weijers for the pGreenII KAN SV40-3×GFP and R2D2 vectors, W. Yang for the splmutant, Y. Qin for the pKNU::KNU-VENUS vector and seed, G. Tang for the STTM160/160-48 vector, and L. Colombo for pPIN1::PIN1-GFP spl and pin1-5 seeds. This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF)-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) research grant to D.Z. (IOS-1322796) and T.A. (2012756). D.Z. also gratefully acknowledges supports of the Shaw Scientist Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA, 2022-67013-36294), the UWM Discovery and Innovation Grant, the Bradley Catalyst Award from the UWM Research Foundation, and WiSys and UW System Applied Research Funding Programs.

Volume

Article Number

6960

ISSN

2041-1723

IST-REx-ID

12130

Cite this

Huang J, Zhao L, Malik S, et al. Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications. 2022;13. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34723-6

Huang, J., Zhao, L., Malik, S., Gentile, B. R., Xiong, V., Arazi, T., … Zhao, D. (2022). Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis. Nature Communications. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34723-6

Huang, Jian, Lei Zhao, Shikha Malik, Benjamin R. Gentile, Va Xiong, Tzahi Arazi, Heather A. Owen, Jiří Friml, and Dazhong Zhao. “Specification of Female Germline by MicroRNA Orchestrated Auxin Signaling in Arabidopsis.” Nature Communications. Springer Nature, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34723-6.

J. Huang et al., “Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis,” Nature Communications, vol. 13. Springer Nature, 2022.

Huang, Jian, et al. “Specification of Female Germline by MicroRNA Orchestrated Auxin Signaling in Arabidopsis.” Nature Communications, vol. 13, 6960, Springer Nature, 2022, doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34723-6.

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