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Visualization of auxin-mediated transcriptional activation using a common auxin-responsive reporter system in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha

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Abstract

The phytohormone auxin plays a pivotal role in various developmental aspects in land plants. However, little is known of the auxin response and distribution in non-vascular plants. In this study, we made transgenic plants of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha which express the uidA (GUS) reporter gene under control of the soybean auxin-inducible promoter, ProGH3, and used it to indirectly monitor auxin-mediated transcriptional activation in planta. Transgenic plants carrying ProGH3:GUS showed GUS activity in an auxin-dependent manner. Histochemical GUS staining was observed at the bottom of gemma cups in the process of vegetative propagation. Significant GUS activity was also detected around the gametophyte–sporophyte junction as well as the developing sporophyte after fertilization. These results suggest that the activity of auxin is crucial in both gametophyte and sporophyte development in M. polymorpha, and that the mechanism for auxin-mediated transcriptional activation had already been established when plants emerged on the terrestrial environment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Thomas J. Guilfoyle for GH3:GUS and DR5:GUS plasmids. We appreciate John L. Bowman, Sandra Floyd and Ryuichi Nishihama for critical reading of this manuscript. This work was supported by KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area (No. 23012025 to T.K.), Scientific Research on Innovative Area (No. 23119510 to K.I.), from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and Young Scientists B (No. 22770035 to K.I.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Asahi Glass Foundation (to K.I.).

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  1. Katsuyuki T. Yamato

    Present address: Department of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology, Kinki University, 930 Nishimitani, Kinokawa, 649-6493, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Kimitsune Ishizaki, Maiko Nonomura, Hirotaka Kato, Katsuyuki T. Yamato & Takayuki Kohchi

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  1. Kimitsune Ishizaki
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  2. Maiko Nonomura
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  3. Hirotaka Kato
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  4. Katsuyuki T. Yamato
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Correspondence to Takayuki Kohchi.

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K. Ishizaki and M. Nonomura contributed equally to this work.

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Ishizaki, K., Nonomura, M., Kato, H. et al. Visualization of auxin-mediated transcriptional activation using a common auxin-responsive reporter system in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha . J Plant Res 125, 643–651 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-012-0477-7

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