ERF1 inhibits lateral root emergence by promoting local auxin accumulation and repressing ARF7 expression
Pingxia Zhao,
Jing Zhang,
Siyan Chen,
Zisheng Zhang,
Guangyu Wan,
Jieli Mao,
Zhen Wang,
Shutang Tan,
Chengbin Xiang
Affiliations
Pingxia Zhao
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China; Corresponding author
Jing Zhang
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Siyan Chen
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Zisheng Zhang
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Guangyu Wan
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Jieli Mao
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Zhen Wang
College of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui Province 230036, China
Shutang Tan
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China
Chengbin Xiang
Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Division of Molecular & Cell Biophysics, Hefei National Science Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, University of Science and Technology of China, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province 230027, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Lateral roots (LRs) are crucial for plants to sense environmental signals in addition to water and nutrient absorption. Auxin is key for LR formation, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, we report that Arabidopsis ERF1 inhibits LR emergence by promoting local auxin accumulation with altered distribution and regulating auxin signaling. Loss of ERF1 increases LR density compared with the wild type, whereas ERF1 overexpression causes the opposite phenotype. ERF1 enhances auxin transport by upregulating PIN1 and AUX1, resulting in excessive auxin accumulation in the endodermal, cortical, and epidermal cells surrounding LR primordia. Furthermore, ERF1 represses ARF7 transcription, thereby downregulating the expression of cell-wall remodeling genes that facilitate LR emergence. Together, our study reveals that ERF1 integrates environmental signals to promote local auxin accumulation with altered distribution and repress ARF7, consequently inhibiting LR emergence in adaptation to fluctuating environments.
