title: Induction of epidermal cell fate in Arabidopsis shoots.
abstract: Land plants have evolved a cuticle-bearing epidermis to protect themselves from environmental stress and pathogen attack. Despite its important role, little is known about the molecular mechanisms regulating shoot epidermal cell identity. In a recent study, we found that the Arabidopsis thaliana ATML1 gene is possibly a master regulator of shoot epidermal cell fate. We revealed that ATML1 has the ability to confer shoot epidermis-related traits to non-epidermal cells of the seedlings. These data are consistent with the previous loss-of-function mutant analyses, which implied a positive role of ATML1 in epidermal cell differentiation. Importantly, ectopic epidermal cells induced in ATML1-overexpressing lines provide a novel tool to assess the intrinsic properties of epidermal cells and to study epistatic interactions among genes involved in epidermal/mesophyll differentiation. Using this system, we obtained data revealing that ATML1 negatively influenced mesophyll cell fate. In addition, we provided a working model of how division planes in epidermal cells are determined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences; Graduate School of Science; Osaka University; Toyonaka, Osaka Japan.
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takada
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences; Graduate School of Science; Osaka University; Toyonaka, Osaka Japan.
authors.forename: Nozomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takada
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences; Graduate School of Science; Osaka University; Toyonaka, Osaka Japan.
authors.forename: Ayaka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoshida
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019441:Plant Epidermis / Q000166:cytology*; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: C103790:ATML1 protein, Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins
keywords: ATML1; Arabidopsis thaliana; HD-ZIP class IV transcription factor; epidermal cell differentiation; mesophyll cell differentiation