Calendar Name: seminars Scheduled for: Tuesday, May 10 2011, 11:00 - 12:30 Event text: Dr Keiko Sugimoto RIKEN Plant Science Center Tsurumi, Yokohama JAPAN Details: �Transcriptional control of plant cell dedifferentiation by WIND1� ABSTRACT Many multicellular organisms have a remarkable capacity to regenerate new organs after wounding. As a first step of organ regeneration, adult somatic cells often dedifferentiate to reacquire cell proliferation potential but mechanisms underlying this control remain unknown in plants. We have recently shown that an AP2/ERF transcription factor WOUND-INDUCED DEDIFFERENTIATION 1 (WIND1) participates in the regulation of cell dedifferentiation in Arabidopsis (Iwase et al. 2011). WIND1 is rapidly induced at the wound site and it promotes cell dedifferentiation and subsequent formation of callus, a mass of pluripotent cells. We further demonstrate that ectopic overexpression of WIND1 is sufficient to establish and maintain the dedifferentiated status of somatic cells without exogenous auxin and cytokinin. An in vivo imaging of a synthetic cytokinin reporter reveals that wounding up-regulates the B-type ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR (ARR)-mediated cytokinin response and that WIND1 acts via the ARR-dependent signaling pathway to promote cell dedifferentiation. Discovery of WIND1 provides a new molecular basis to further dissect how transcriptional regulators reprogram cellular differentiation status in plants. Iwase A et al. The AP2/ERF transcription factor WIND1 controls cell dedifferentiation in Arabidopsis. Curr Biol 21: 508-514 (2011)