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Lotus japonicus-ROOT HAIR LESS1-LIKE1 (LRL1) of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor (TF) involved in root hair development. Root hair development is regulated by an elaborate transcriptional network, in which GLABRA2 (GL2), a key negative regulator, directly represses bHLH TF genes, including LRL1 and ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE6 (RHD6). Although RHD6 and its paralogous TFs have been shown to connect downstream to genes involved in cell morphological events such as endomembrane and cell wall modification, the network downstream of LRL1 remains elusive. We found that a mutation of LRL1 causes a short-root-hair phenotype and that this phenotype can be partially rescued by a transgene encoding a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) domain-fused LRL1, LRL1-GR, in the presence of glucocorticoids. Using this conditional rescue system, we identified 46 genes that are activated downstream of LRL1. Among these, cell wall-related genes were significantly enriched and many of them were found to be immediately downstream of LRL1 without de novo protein synthesis in between. We further analyzed three representative genes, PROLINE-RICH PROTEIN1 (PRP1), PRP3, and XYLOGLUCAN ENDOTRANSGLUCOSYLASE/HYDOLASE12 (XTH12). Reporter gene analyses showed that these genes are specifically transcribed in root hair cells including those in the root-hypocotyl junction, and that their proteins were localized to the cell wall of elongating root hairs, root hair bulges, and root hair bulge-expecting loci. A T-DNA insertion mutant of PRP3 showed a moderate short-root-hair phenotype. Based on these results, LRL1 is likely to promote root hair development throughout the morphogenetic process by activating cell wall-related genes., (© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Shoot branching is a critical determinant of plant architecture and a key factor affecting crop yield. The shoot branching involves two main processes: axillary meristem formation and subsequent bud outgrowth. While considerable progress has been made in elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying the latter process, our understanding of the former process remains limited. Rice FINE CULM1 (FC1), which is an ortholog of teosinte branched1 in maize (Zea mays) and BRANCHED1/2 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), is known to act in the latter process by repressing bud outgrowth. In this study, we found that FC1 also plays a role in the former process, i.e. axillary meristem formation, in rice. This study was triggered by our unexpected observation that fc1 mutation suppresses the loss of axillary meristems in the loss-of-function mutant of the rice WUSCHEL gene TILLERS ABSENT1 (TAB1). In tab1 fc1, unlike in tab1, both stem cells and undifferentiated cells were maintained during axillary meristem formation, similar to the wild type. Morphological analysis showed that axillary meristem formation was accelerated in fc1, compared to the wild type. Consistent with this, cell proliferation was more active in the region containing stem cells and undifferentiated cells during axillary meristem formation in fc1 than in the wild type. Taken altogether, these findings suggest that FC1 negatively regulates axillary meristem formation by mildly repressing cell proliferation during this process., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site–for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

TRIPTYCHON (TRY) is one of the R3-MYB transcription factors. Its extended C-terminal 19 amino-acid region (CTRY) is considered to affect the ability of root hair differentiation in Arabidopsis. Here, to further understand the function of CTRY, it, together with GFP, was artificially fused with TRY homologs, CPC and ETC1, which do not contain such extended regions and induce root hair differentiation. Arabidopsis transgenic plants carrying the fusion proteins, CPC-CTRY-GFP and ETC1-CTRY-GFP, induced root hair differentiation as observed in those carrying the original proteins without CTRY. The expression levels of the fusion proteins in the transgenic plants were essentially the same as those of the original proteins, although their subcellular localization to nuclei of root epidermal cells was slightly changed by CTRY. Therefore, CTRY does not affect the ability of CPC and ETC1 to induce root hair differentiation when artificially fused, and its function may be restricted in TRY., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry.)

Despite the importance of extracellular events in cell wall organization and biogenesis, the mechanisms and related factors are largely unknown. We isolated an allele of the shaven3 (shv3) mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, which exhibits ruptured root hair cells during tip growth. SHV3 encodes a novel protein with two tandemly repeated glycerophosphoryl diester phosphodiesterase-like domains and a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor, and several of its paralogs are found in Arabidopsis. Here, we report the detailed characterization of mutants of SHV3 and one of its paralogs, SVL1. The shv3 and svl1 double mutant exhibited additional defects, including swollen guard cells, aberrant expansion of the hypocotyl epidermis and ectopic lignin deposits, suggesting decreased rigidity of the cell wall. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and measurement of the cell wall components indicated an altered cellulose content and pectin modification with cross-linking in the double mutant. Furthermore, we found that the ruptured root hair phenotype of shv3 was suppressed by increasing the amount of borate, which is supposed to be involved in pectic polysaccharide cross-linking, in the medium. These findings indicate that SHV3 and its paralogs are novel important factors involved in primary cell wall organization.

Epidermis cell differentiation in Arabidopsis thaliana is a model system for understanding the developmental end state of plant cells. Two types of MYB transcription factors, R2R3-MYB and R3-MYB, are involved in cell fate determination. To examine the molecular basis of this process, we analyzed the functional relationship of the R2R3-type MYB gene WEREWOLF (WER) and the R3-type MYB gene CAPRICE (CPC). Chimeric constructs made from the R3 MYB regions of WER and CPC used in reciprocal complementation experiments showed that the CPC R3 region cannot functionally substitute for the WER R3 region in the differentiation of hairless cells. However, WER R3 can substantially substitute for CPC R3. There are no differences in yeast interaction assays of WER or WER chimera proteins with GLABRA3 (GL3) or ENHANCER OF GLABRA3 (EGL3). CPC and CPC chimera proteins also have similar activity in preventing GL3 WER and EGL3 WER interactions. Furthermore, we showed by gel mobility shift assays that WER chimera proteins do not bind to the GL2 promoter region. However, a CPC chimera protein, which harbors the WER R3 motif, still binds to the GL2 promoter region.