title: STENOFOLIA acts as a repressor in regulating leaf blade outgrowth.
abstract: We recently reported that the Medicago WOX gene, STENOFOLIA (STF), acts as a transcriptional repressor in regulating leaf blade outgrowth. By using the Nicotiana sylvestris bladeless lam1 mutant as a genetic tool, we showed that the WUS-box, which is conserved among WUS clade WOX genes, is partly responsible for the repressive activity of STF. All members of the modern/WUS clade genes (WUS, WOX1-WOX7) in Arabidopsis that contain intact WUS-box can substitute for STF/LAM1 function while the intermediate and ancient clade members including WOX9,WOX11 and WOX13 cannot, due to lack of the intact WUS-box. Taken together, our results reveal a conserved repression mechanism playing a central role in cell proliferation conferred to the evolutionarily dynamic WOX gene family with acquisition of a repressor domain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences; Institute for Agricultural Biosciences; Oklahoma State University; Ardmore, OK USA.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Million
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tadege
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D029902:Medicago / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: STF; WOX family; WUS-box; cell proliferation; lam1; leaf blade outgrowth; repressor