Forbidden Fruit: Dominance Relationships and the Control of Shoot Architecture

Walker, Catriona H; Bennett, Tom

doi:10.1002/9781119312994.apr0640

Cited by 28 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 116 publications

(177 reference statements)

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“…Consistent with previous suggestions, we propose that a conserved core pathway could underlie all primigenic dominance phenomena (Bangerth, ; Walker and Bennett, in press), including fruit morph determination in Aethionema species. In this basic regulatory module, high auxin export from developing organs leads to their growth and dominance in the shoot system and conversely low auxin export leads to inhibition (Bangerth, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Furthermore, at a mechanistic level, carpic dominance is not well characterized in any species. Nevertheless, we can offer some speculation, based on evidence derived from measuring hormone and gene expression levels (Figures and S6) and on the assumption that the regulatory network controlling carpic dominance is closely related to the shoot branching regulatory network (Walker and Bennett, in press). This hypothesis has been previously proposed because of striking similarities between these phenomena in terms of auxin action and transport (Bangerth, ) and is further supported by the fact that both processes react in similar ways to environmental factors (Bangerth, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another example of correlative dominance is the interaction between developing fruits, in which early developing fruits suppress the growth of later developing pollinated ovaries (Bangerth, ; Smith and Samach, ). This phenomenon is driven by the seeds, such that parthenocarpic fruit exhibit no dominance, and thus can be considered as ‘carpic dominance’ (Walker and Bennett, in press). It results in a spectrum of effects from mild growth inhibition through to fruitlet abscission, depending on the species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When the BRANCHED network bears fruit: how carpic dominance causes fruit dimorphism in Aethionema

et al. 2018

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Life in unpredictably changing habitats is a great challenge, especially for sessile organisms like plants. Fruit and seed heteromorphism is one way to cope with such variable environmental conditions. It denotes the production of distinct types of fruits and seeds that often mediate distinct life-history strategies in terms of dispersal, germination and seedling establishment. But although the phenomenon can be found in numerous species and apparently evolved several times independently, its developmental time course or molecular regulation remains largely unknown. Here, we studied fruit development in Aethionema arabicum, a dimorphic member of the Brassicaceae family. We characterized fruit morph differentiation by comparatively analyzing discriminating characters like fruit growth, seed abortion and dehiscence zone development. Our data demonstrate that fruit morph determination is a 'last-minute' decision happening in flowers after anthesis directly before the first morphotypical differences start to occur. Several growth experiments in combination with hormone and gene expression analyses further indicate that an accumulation balance of the plant hormones auxin and cytokinin in open flowers together with the transcript abundance of the Ae. arabicum ortholog of BRANCHED1, encoding a transcription factor known for its conserved function as a branching repressor, may guide fruit morph determination. Thus, we hypothesize that the plasticity of the fruit morph ratio in Ae. arabicum may have evolved through the modification of a preexisting network known to govern correlative dominance between shoot organs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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When the BRANCHED network bears fruit: how carpic dominance causes fruit dimorphism in Aethionema

et al. 2018

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“…Recent studies have suggested that end-of-flowering involves gene expression changes at the floral meristem which are at least in part controlled by the FRUITFULL-APETELA2 pathway [3,4], however there is limited understanding of how this process is controlled and the communication needed at the whole plant level. Here, we provide new information providing a framework for the fruit-to-meristem (F-M) communication implied by the GPA model [5]. We show that floral arrest in Arabidopsis is not 'global' and does not occur synchronously between branches, but rather that the arrest of each inflorescence is a local process, driven by auxin export from fruit proximal to the inflorescence meristem (IM).…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Auxin export from proximal fruits drives arrest in competent inflorescence meristems

Ware

Walker

Šimura

et al. 2019

Preprint

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A well-defined set of regulatory pathways control entry into the reproductive phase in flowering plants [1]. Conversely, little is known about the mechanisms that control the end of the reproductive phase ('floral arrest'), despite this being a critical process for optimising fruit and seed production. Complete fruit removal or lack of fertile fruit-set in male sterile mutants, for example male sterile1 (ms1), prevents timely floral arrest in the model plant Arabidopsis [2]. These observations formed the basis for Hensel and colleagues' model in which end-of-flowering was proposed to result from a cumulative fruit/seed-derived signal that caused simultaneous 'global proliferative arrest' (GPA) in all inflorescences [2]. Recent studies have suggested that end-of-flowering involves gene expression changes at the floral meristem which are at least in part controlled by the FRUITFULL-APETELA2 pathway [3,4], however there is limited understanding of how this process is controlled and the communication needed at the whole plant level. Here, we provide new information providing a framework for the fruit-to-meristem (F-M) communication implied by the GPA model [5]. We show that floral arrest in Arabidopsis is not 'global' and does not occur synchronously between branches, but rather that the arrest of each inflorescence is a local process, driven by auxin export from fruit proximal to the inflorescence meristem (IM). Furthermore, we show that inflorescence meristems are only competent for floral arrest once they reach a certain developmental age. Understanding the regulation of floral arrest is of major importance for the future manipulation of flowering to extend and maximise crop yields.

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“…While it is certainly true that plant growth can be absolutely limited by lack of resources, it is also the case that plants can pro-actively 'choose' not to invest in more growth. Indeed, where sufficient information is present in the environment to allow plants to predict future resource scarcity, it is a far more useful strategy to pro-actively limit growth to avoid resource limitations, than to grow until resources are exhausted (Walker & Bennett, 2018). We can characterise changes in plant development as 'decisions' if they are taken in the absence of resource limitations, and 'responses' if they occur due to resource limitations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Root density sensing allows pro-active modulation of shoot growth to avoid future resource limitation

Bennett

2019

Preprint

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Plants use environmental cues to determine their optimal root and shoot growth. It is well known to gardeners and horticulturists alike that soil volumemost commonly in the form of pot sizestrongly restricts plant growth, but the mechanisms by which this effect occurs remain unclear. Here, we show that shoot growth scales directly with soil volume, independently of the nutritional content of the soil, and that plants can become 'volume restricted' even in the presence of abundant resources. We show that plants can detect their soil volume as early as 3 weeks post germination, and that shoot growth restriction therefore constitutes a pro-active 'decision' by the plant to avoid resource limitation later in the life cycle. Shoot growth restriction is not directly linked to root growth restriction, and does not occur in response to the mechanical detection of the pot walls. Rather, we show that plants detect their soil volume by detecting the density of roots in the proximity of their root system. As such, volume restriction may be intimately connected with the mechanism by which plants sense and respond to the roots of other plants in the rhizosphere. Our work demonstrates the remarkable ability of plants to make pro-active decisions about their growth to ensure they can complete their cycle, and has important implications for agricultural practise regarding both nutrient use efficiency and yield.

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Forbidden Fruit: Dominance Relationships and the Control of Shoot Architecture

Cited by 28 publications

References 116 publications

When the BRANCHED network bears fruit: how carpic dominance causes fruit dimorphism in Aethionema

When the BRANCHED network bears fruit: how carpic dominance causes fruit dimorphism in Aethionema

Auxin export from proximal fruits drives arrest in competent inflorescence meristems

Root density sensing allows pro-active modulation of shoot growth to avoid future resource limitation

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