Abstract
Key message
BIG regulates the shoot stem cell population.
Abstract
The shoot apical meristem (SAM) contains a population of self-renewing cells, and provides daughter cells for initiation and development of aerial parts of plants. However, the underlying mechanisms of SAM size regulation remain largely unclear. Here, we identified a mutant that displayed a large SAM, designated big-shoot meristem (big-m), in Arabidopsis thaliana. The phenotype of big-m is caused by a new T-DNA insertion allele of BIG, causing a loss of function. The big-m mutant had more stem cells in the SAM than in the wild type. Expression of WUSCHEL (WUS) and SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM) was promoted in big-m compared with the wild type, showing that BIG functions upstream of WUS and STM. Therefore, BIG is an important regulator of the stem cell population in the SAM. Furthermore, genetic analysis indicated that BIG acts synergistically with PIN-FORMED1 (PIN1) in controlling SAM size. Our results suggest that BIG plays an important role in controlling Arabidopsis thaliana SAM growth via PIN1-mediated auxin homeostasis.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670320, 31700248) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2017JL016).
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WJZ, LMZ, HXY, YHS, and LPT designed research; WJZ, LMZ, HXY, JP, and SSW performed experiments; XSZ, YHS, and LPT analyzed data; YHS and LPT wrote the paper.
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Communicated by Chun-Hai Dong.
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Zhang, W.J., Zhai, L.M., Yu, H.X. et al. The BIG gene controls size of shoot apical meristems in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell Rep 39, 543–552 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-020-02510-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-020-02510-6