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Nitrate induction of root hair density is mediated by TGA 1/ TGA 4 and CPC transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
Canales Javier,
ContrerasLópez Orlando,
Álvarez José M.,
Gutiérrez Rodrigo A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/tpj.13656
Subject(s) - root hair , arabidopsis thaliana , mutant , nitrate , nitrate reductase , arabidopsis , biology , botany , lateral root , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biochemistry , gene , ecology
Summary Root hairs are specialized cells that are important for nutrient uptake. It is well established that nutrients such as phosphate have a great influence on root hair development in many plant species. Here we investigated the role of nitrate on root hair development at a physiological and molecular level. We showed that nitrate increases root hair density in Arabidopsis thaliana . We found that two different root hair defective mutants have significantly less nitrate than wild‐type plants, suggesting that in A. thaliana root hairs have an important role in the capacity to acquire nitrate. Nitrate reductase‐null mutants exhibited nitrate‐dependent root hair phenotypes comparable with wild‐type plants, indicating that nitrate is the signal that leads to increased formation of root hairs. We examined the role of two key regulators of root hair cell fate, CPC and WER , in response to nitrate treatments. Phenotypic analyses of these mutants showed that CPC is essential for nitrate‐induced responses of root hair development. Moreover, we showed that NRT 1.1 and TGA 1/ TGA 4 are required for pathways that induce root hair development by suppression of longitudinal elongation of trichoblast cells in response to nitrate treatments. Our results prompted a model where nitrate signaling via TGA 1/ TGA 4 directly regulates the CPC root hair cell fate specification gene to increase formation of root hairs in A. thaliana .