TOR acts as metabolic gatekeeper for auxin-dependent lateral root initiation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Plants post-embryonic organogenesis requires matching the available metabolic resources to the developmental programs. The root system is determined by the formation of lateral roots (LR), which in Arabidopsis thaliana entails the auxin-induced activation of founder cells located in the pericycle. While the allocation of sugars to roots influences root branching, how sugar availability is sensed for auxin-triggered formation of LRs remains unknown. Here, we combine metabolic profiling with cell-specific genetic interference to show that LR formation is an important sink for carbohydrate accompanied by a switch to glycolysis. We show that the target-of-rapamycin (TOR) kinase is locally activated in the pericycle and the founder cells and that both chemical and genetic inhibition of TOR kinase lead to a block of LR initiation. TOR marginally affects the auxin-induced transcriptional response of the pericycle but modulates the translation of ARF19, ARF7 and LBD16, three key targets of auxin signalling. These data place TOR as a gatekeeper for post-embryonic LR formation that integrates local auxin-dependent pathways with systemic metabolic signals, modulating the translation of auxin induced gene expression.