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SEUSS and LEUNIG regulate cell proliferation, vascular development and organ polarity in Arabidopsis petals

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Abstract

Unlike in animals where cell migrations and programmed cell death play key roles in organ shape determination, in plants organ shape is largely a result of coordinated cellular growth (cell divisions and cell elongations). We have investigated the role of the SEUSS and LEUNIG genes in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. petal development to better understand the molecular mechanisms through which cellular growth and organ shape are coordinated in plants. SEUSS and LEUNIG encode components of a putative transcriptional regulatory complex that controls organ identity specification through the repression of the floral organ identity gene AGAMOUS. SEUSS and LEUNIG also regulate petal shape through AGAMOUS-independent mechanisms; however, the molecular and cellular actions of SEUSS and LEUNIG during petal development are unknown. Here we show that SEUSS and LEUNIG control blade cell number and vasculature development within the petal. Furthermore, SEUSS and LEUNIG regulate petal polarity along the adaxial/abaxial axis. We present a model where SEUSS and LEUNIG are required to potentiate the key polarity genes PHABULOSA and FILAMENTOUS FLOWER/YABBY1 and thus influence cellular growth within the developing petal blade.

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Abbreviations

HD-ZIP:

Homeodomain-leucine zipper

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

s.d.:

Standard deviation

FIL/YAB1 :

FILAMENTOUS FLOWER/YABBY1

PHB :

PHABULOSA

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Acknowledgments

We thank John Bowman for providing PHB and YAB1/FIL in situ probes; Yuki Mizukami for suggestions regarding petal cell size analysis; Sridevi Ashakanandam for technical assistance; undergraduate researchers Sarah Stefanos and Bill Tran; and the UC Berkeley and NCSU Centers for Electron Microscopy. We thank Jose Alonso, Anna Stepanova, Beth Krizek, Tzung-Fu Hsieh, and anonymous reviewers for commenting on the manuscript. This work was funded by the following grants: NSF IOB-0416759, USDA ARS NC06759 and NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship GM20426-02 to R.G.F.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Robert G. Franks

  2. Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Zhongchi Liu

  3. Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Robert L. Fischer

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  1. Robert G. Franks
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  2. Zhongchi Liu
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Correspondence to Robert G. Franks.

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Franks, R.G., Liu, Z. & Fischer, R.L. SEUSS and LEUNIG regulate cell proliferation, vascular development and organ polarity in Arabidopsis petals. Planta 224, 801–811 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-006-0264-6

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