Evolutionary conservation of a master transcriptional regulatory network for water-conducting and support cells in land plants

One of the problems that land plants faced during their evolution was how to support their large bodies and how to transport water throughout the bodies. As a solution to this problem, land plants developed cells for supporting the body, called supporting cells (SCs), and cells for transporting water, called water-conducting cells (WCCs), which are cytologically characterized by the formation of thick secondary cell walls and programmed cell death. The well-developed SCs and WCCs are found in woody tissues, the important bioenergy sources, as fibers and vessel elements, respectively in extant vascular plants.
We previously identified a specific set of NAC transcription factors, VASCULAR-RELATED NAC-DOMAIN (VND) proteins, for differentiation of vessel elements in Arabidopsis (Kubo et al. 2005). After the identification, we have shown that VND proteins and their homologous proteins VNS (VND, NST/SND, SMB-related) function as “the master transcriptional regulatory network (TRN)”, which have an ability to induce the whole differentiation program of SCs and WCCs in angiosperms. Also, most importantly, “the VNS-based TRN” has been shown to be conserved among land plants including gymnosperms and mosses (Akiyoshi et al., 2019, Xu et al., 2014, Terada et al., 2021). Especially, mutations of the VNS genes in Physcomitrium patens resulted in apparent defects in development of WCCs (hydroids) and SCs (stereids) (Xu et al., 2014).




Recent studies on VNS-based TRN using Arabidopsis especially with the artificial TE differentiation induction system through the activation of VNS-based TRN have revealed a variety of molecular aspects on WCC and SC formation, which might be adopted to other plants including crops.

Speaker: Dr. Taku Demura (Professor, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan)

Host: Dr. Masashi Yamada

Time:2024/09/03 11:00 AM

Location:Auditorium A134, Agricultural Technology Building