Brief Communication abstract


Nature Cell Biology 10, 625 - 628 (2008)
Published online: 20 April 2008 | doi:10.1038/ncb1726

Root growth in Arabidopsis requires gibberellin/DELLA signalling in the endodermis

Susana Ubeda-Tomás1, Ranjan Swarup1, Juliet Coates2, Kamal Swarup1, Laurent Laplaze3, Gerrit T.S. Beemster4,5, Peter Hedden6, Rishikesh Bhalerao7 & Malcolm J. Bennett1

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Gibberellins (GAs) are key regulators of plant growth and development. They promote growth by targeting the degradation of DELLA repressor proteins; however, their site of action at the cellular, tissue or organ levels remains unknown. To map the site of GA action in regulating root growth, we expressed gai, a non-degradable, mutant DELLA protein, in selected root tissues. Root growth was retarded specifically when gai was expressed in endodermal cells. Our results demonstrate that the endodermis represents the primary GA-responsive tissue regulating organ growth and that endodermal cell expansion is rate-limiting for elongation of other tissues and therefore of the root as a whole.

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  1. Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, LE12 5RD, UK.
  2. School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston B15 2TT UK.
  3. Institut de Recherche pour le Dévelopement, UMR 1097, 911 Avenue Agropolis, F-34394, Montpellier, cedex 5 France.
  4. Department of Plant Systems Biology, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, 9052 Gent, Belgium.
  5. Department of Molecular Genetics, Ghent University, 9052 Gent, Belgium.
  6. Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ, UK.
  7. Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, SLU, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden.

Correspondence to: Malcolm J. Bennett1 e-mail: malcolm.bennett@nottingham.ac.uk

Correspondence to: Rishikesh Bhalerao7 e-mail: Rishi.Bhalerao@genfys.slu.se



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