A coherent transcriptional feed-forward motif model for mediating auxin-sensitive PIN3 expression during lateral root development

Multiple plant developmental processes, such as lateral root development, depend on auxin distribution patterns that are in part generated by the PIN-formed family of auxin-efflux transporters. Here we propose that AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR7 (ARF7) and the ARF7-regulated FOUR LIPS/MYB124 (FLP) transcription factors jointly form a coherent feed-forward motif that mediates the auxin-responsive PIN3 transcription in planta to steer the early steps of lateral root formation. This regulatory mechanism might endow the PIN3 circuitry with a temporal ‘memory' of auxin stimuli, potentially maintaining and enhancing the robustness of the auxin flux directionality during lateral root development. The cooperative action between canonical auxin signalling and other transcription factors might constitute a general mechanism by which transcriptional auxin-sensitivity can be regulated at a tissue-specific level.
Lateral root development is dependent on precise control of the distribution of the plant hormone auxin. Here Chen et al. propose the transcription factors ARF7 and FLP participate in a feed forward motif to mediate expression of the auxin transporter PIN3 and consequently regulate lateral root development.