''New insights in the root apical meristem maintenance and lateral root development in Arabidopsis thaliana''

Prof Joseph G. Dubrovsky

Monday, May 22, 2023
11:00

Root system possess a modular organization, in which the root apical meristem (RAM) maintenance and root growth are essential for new root formation. In my lab we study the RAM maintenance and lateral root (LR) formation, and I will discuss our recent discoveries and novel understanding of some processes related to the root system formation. In search of new regulatory pathways of RAM maintenance, we isolated several mutans that are incapable of root growth. This work revealed a new metabolically-dependent regulatory pathway involved in RAM maintenance. Specifically, we established that THREONINE SYNTHASE 1 (TSY1) is critical for stem cell activity independently of the classical SHR-SCR, PLT, and WOX5 regulatory pathways. Using mathematical modeling we were able to reproduce in silico determinate root growth in loss-of-function mutants and predict that not only synthesis but also catabolism of Thr is essential for the RAM maintenance. This work also demonstrated that the RAM proliferation and transition domains can be uncoupled. The RAM function is fundamental for the new root axis and LR root formation, and in the second part of my seminar I will present new insights that show that LR does not start from a preselected group of cells, but in most cases from a single founder cell (FC). We established that after specification of the first FC, a dynamic and non-stereotypic process of FC recruitment from neighboring pericycle cells is taking place. FC recruitment occurs in longitudinal and tangential directions and culminates in the formation of a morphogenetic field of FCs. The recruitment of phloem-pole pericycle to FCs and the role of parent root tissues in the LR formation will also be discussed. I will present our recent data that show how parental root procambium in the vicinity with the FCs participates in the formation of the xylem bridge underlying vascular continuity between all root types in the root system.

Jozef Schell seminar room
Technologiepark 71 - 9052 

Invited by Prof Dirk Inzé and Prof Lieven De Veylder

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