title: Control of leaf morphogenesis by microRNAs.
abstract: Plants with altered microRNA metabolism have pleiotropic developmental defects, but direct evidence for microRNAs regulating specific aspects of plant morphogenesis has been lacking. In a genetic screen, we identified the JAW locus, which produces a microRNA that can guide messenger RNA cleavage of several TCP genes controlling leaf development. MicroRNA-guided cleavage of TCP4 mRNA is necessary to prevent aberrant activity of the TCP4 gene expressed from its native promoter. In addition, overexpression of wild-type and microRNA-resistant TCP variants demonstrates that mRNA cleavage is largely sufficient to restrict TCP function to its normal domain of activity. TCP genes with microRNA target sequences are found in a wide range of species, indicating that microRNA-mediated control of leaf morphogenesis is conserved in plants with very different leaf forms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Javier F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Palatnik
authors.forename: Edwards
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Xuelin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schommer
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schwab
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Carrington
authors.forename: Detlef
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weigel
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009154:Mutation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D012323:RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant