Frontiers in Plant Science (Mar 2013)
High-temperature injury and auxin biosynthesis in microsporogenesis.
Abstract
Plant reproductive development is more sensitive than vegetative growth to many environmental stresses. With global warming, in particular, plant high temperature injury is becoming an increasingly serious problem. In wheat, barley, and various other commercially important crops, the early phase of anther development is especially susceptible to high temperatures. We recently demonstrated that high temperature causes cell-proliferation arrest and represses auxin signaling in a tissue-specific manner of the anther cells of barley and Arabidopsis. These phenomena were accompanied by comprehensive alterations in transcription including repression of cell-proliferation related genes and YUCCA auxin biosynthesis genes. Moreover, application of auxin completely improved the transcriptional alterations, the production of normal pollen grains, and seed setting rate under increasing temperatures. These denote that auxin, which has been used widely as potent and selective herbicides, is useful for the promotion of plant fertility and maintenance of crop yields under the global warming conditions.
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