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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Cytokinins regulate root growth through its action on meristematic cell proliferation but not on the transition to differentiation

Victor B. Ivanov A C and Alexey N. Filin A B
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A Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Botanicheskaya str. 35, 127276, Moscow, Russia.

B Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology, Botanical Garden, Leninskie Gory1 (12), 119991, Moscow, Russia.

C Corresponding author. Email: ivanov_vb@mail.ru

This paper originates from a presentation at the Fourth International Symposium on Plant Signaling and Behavior, Komarov Botanical Institute RAS/Russian Science Foundation, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1923 June 2016.

Functional Plant Biology 45(2) 215-221 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP16340
Submitted: 30 September 2016  Accepted: 1 February 2017   Published: 28 March 2017

Abstract

Contrary to the wide-spread view that cytokinins change the rate of root growth and meristem size by regulating the cell transition to elongation (differentiation), our data showed that cytokinins affected the cell cycle duration in the meristem. The rate of meristematic cell transition to elongation itself is regulated by two groups of independent processes, through influence on (i) the life-span of cells in the meristem, and (ii) the cell proliferation rate in the meristem. Trans-zeatin slows down the root growth rate and the cell transition to elongation as a result of prolongation of mitotic cycles. The life-span of cells in the meristem does not change. The number of meristematic cells in one file decreases due to inhibition of cell proliferation but not to an acceleration of cell transition to elongation. Roots of triple mutant ipt3ipt5ipt7, in which cytokinin synthesis is slowed down, behave in an opposite way such that the rate of cell transition to elongation and cell proliferation is speeded up. Their peculiarity is that the life-span of cells in meristem becomes shorter than in control roots. In both cases, a change in concentration of endogenous cytokinin or in its signalling are associated with a change in mitotic cycle duration.

Additional keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana, cell transition to differentiation, cytokinin, mitotic cycle, root apical meristem, root cell growth.


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