GSE75611
Comparison of gene expression between athb8-11 cna-2 phb-13 phv-6 (bvca) and wild type (Col er-2) in 0.5 mm root tips of Arabidopsis.
The class III HD-ZIP transcription factors regulate vascular patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana roots. In this expression study we compare the expression profile of the athb8 cna phb phv quadruple mutant to its wild type. The results are presented in PHABULOSA mediates an auxin signaling loop to regulate vascular patterning in Arabidopsis by Christina Joy Müller, Ana Elisa Valdés, Guodong Wang, Prashanth Ramachandran, Lisa Beste, Daniel Uddenberg, and  Annelie Carlsbecker, accepted for publication in Plant Physiology Nov. 2015. Plant vascular tissues, xylem and phloem, differentiate in distinct patterns from procambial cells as an integral transport system for water, sugars and signaling molecules. Procambium formation is promoted by high auxin levels activating class III homeodomain leucine zipper (HD-ZIP III) transcription factors (TFs). In the root of Arabidopsis thaliana, HD-ZIP III TFs dose-dependently govern the patterning of the xylem axis, with higher levels promoting metaxylem cell identity in the central axis and lower levels protoxylem at its flanks. It is, however, unclear by what mechanisms the HD-ZIP III TFs control xylem axis patterning. Here we present data suggesting that an important mechanism is their ability to moderate auxin response. We found that changes in HD-ZIP III TF levels affect the expression of genes encoding core auxin response molecules. We show that one of the HD-ZIP III TFs, PHABULOSA, directly binds the promoter of both MONOPTEROS/AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR5 (MP/ARF5), a key factor in vascular formation, and IAA20, encoding an AUX/IAA protein which is stable in the presence of auxin and able to interact with and repress MP activity. The double mutant of IAA20 and its closest homologue IAA30 forms ectopic protoxylem, while overexpression of IAA30 causes discontinuous protoxylem and occasional ectopic metaxylem, similar to a weak loss-of-function mp-mutant. Our results provide evidence that HD-ZIP III TFs directly affect auxin response and mediate a feed forward loop formed by MP and IAA20 that may focus and stabilize auxin response during vascular patterning and differentiation of xylem cell types. Overall design: Root tips of 4 days post germination Arabidopsis thaliana athb8-11 cna-2 phb-13 phv-6 and Col er-2 grown vertically were manually microdissected to ca 0.5 mm. Three biological replicates were included for each genotype. RNA was prepared from the root tips and hybridized on Affymetrix ATH1 microarrays.