title: High throughput selection of novel plant growth regulators: Assessing the translatability of small bioactive molecules from Arabidopsis to crops.
abstract: Plant growth regulators (PGRs) have become an integral part of agricultural and horticultural practices. Accordingly, there is an increased demand for new and cost-effective products. Nevertheless, the market is limited by insufficient innovation. In this context chemical genomics has gained increasing attention as a powerful approach addressing specific traits. Here is described the successful implementation of a highly specific, sensitive and efficient high throughput screening approach using Arabidopsis as a model. Using a combination of techniques, 10,000 diverse compounds were screened and evaluated for several important plant growth traits including root and leaf growth. The phenotype-based selection allowed the compilation of a collection of putative Arabidopsis growth regulators with a broad range of activities and specificities. A subset was selected for evaluating their bioactivity in agronomically valuable plants. Their validation as growth regulators in commercial species such as tomato, lettuce, carrot, maize and turfgrasses reinforced the success of the screening in Arabidopsis and indicated that small molecules activity can be efficiently translated to commercial species. Therefore, the chemical genomics approach in Arabidopsis is a promising field that can be incorporated in PGR discovery programs and has a great potential to develop new products that can be efficiently used in crops.
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Biology Centre, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: cecilia.rodriguez@cbmv.cl.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Furlán
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Biology Centre, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: gmiranda@u.uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos (CEFOBI), CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina. Electronic address: reggiardo@cefobi-conicet.gov.ar.
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reggiardo
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Center for Plant Cell Biology and Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA. Electronic address: ghicks@ucr.edu.
authors.forename: Glenn R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Biology Centre, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile. Electronic address: lnorambuena@uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Norambuena
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000254:growth & development*; D023281:Genomics; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods*; D010641:Phenotype; D010937:Plant Growth Regulators / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D010937:Plant Growth Regulators
keywords: Arabidopsis; Chemical genomics; Crops; High-throughput screening; Plant growth regulator