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Touch-induced changes in Arabidopsis morphology dependent on gibberellin breakdown

Nature Plants volume 1, Article number: 14025 (2015) Cite this article

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An Erratum to this article was published on 10 February 2015

Abstract

Touch can lead to a reduction in plant growth and a delay in flowering time. Touch-induced changes in plant morphology, termed thigmomorphogenesis, have been shown to depend on the phytohormone jasmonate1. However, touch-induced phenotypes are also reminiscent of plants deficient in the phytohormone gibberellin2. Here we assess the effect of touch on wild-type Arabidopsis plants and mutants deficient in gibberellin signalling. We show that touch leads to stunted growth and delayed flowering in wild-type plants, as expected. These touch-induced changes in morphology are accompanied by a reduction in gibberellin levels, and can be reversed through the application of a bioactive form of gibberellin. We further show that touch induces the expression of AtGA2ox7, which encodes an enzyme involved in gibberellin catabolism. Arabidopsis ga2ox7 loss-of-function mutants do not respond to touch, suggesting that this gene is a key regulator of thigmomorphogenesis. We conclude that touch-induced changes in Arabidopsis morphology depend on gibberellin catabolism. Given that AtGA2ox7 helps to confer resistance to salt stress, and that touch can increase plant resistance to pathogens, we suggest that gibberellin catabolism could be targeted to improve plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stress.

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Figure 1: Exogenous application of bioactive GA4 restores the thigmo-phenotypes in Arabidopsis.
Figure 2: Touching alters endogenous GA levels and expression of GA signalling genes.
Figure 3: AtGA2ox7 loss-of-function mutant is non-responsive to touch.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anja Liebrandt for technical assistance, Sarah Krüger and Arne Schmidt for help growing the plants, and Drs Patrick Achard and Roberto Solano for kindly providing seeds of the global della and the myc2,3,4 mutants, respectively.

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Author notes

  1. Maria João Pimenta Lange and Theo Lange: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TU Braunschweig, Institut für Pfanzenbiologie, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

    Maria João Pimenta Lange & Theo Lange

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  1. Maria João Pimenta Lange
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M.J.P.L. and T.L designed and performed the experiments and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Maria João Pimenta Lange or Theo Lange.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lange, M., Lange, T. Touch-induced changes in Arabidopsis morphology dependent on gibberellin breakdown. Nature Plants 1, 14025 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2014.25

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