Systemic signalling through TCTP1 controls lateral root formation in Arabidopsis

Abstract

As in animals, the plant body plan and primary organs are established during embryogenesis. However, plants have the ability to generate new organs and functional units throughout their whole life. These are produced through the specification, initiation and differentiation of secondary meristems, governed by the intrinsic genetic program and cues from the environment. They give plants an extraordinary developmental plasticity to modulate their size and architecture according to environmental constraints and opportunities. How this plasticity is regulated at the whole organism level is still largely elusive. In particular the mechanisms regulating the iterative formation of lateral roots along the primary root remain little known. A pivotal role of auxin is well established and recently the role of local mechanical signals and oscillations in transcriptional activity has emerged. Here we provide evidence for a role of Translationally Controlled Tumor Protein (TCTP), a vital ubiquitous protein in eukaryotes. We show that Arabidopsis AtTCTP1 controls root system architecture through a dual function: as a general constitutive growth promoter locally, and as a systemic signalling agent via mobility from the shoot. Our data indicate that this signalling function is specifically targeted to the pericycle and modulates the frequency of lateral root initiation and emergence sites along the primary root, and the compromise between branching and elongating, independent of shoot size. Plant TCTP genes show high similarity among species. TCTP messengers and proteins have been detected in the vasculature of diverse species. This suggests that the mobility and extracellular signalling function of AtTCTP1 to control root organogenesis might be widely conserved within the plant kingdom, and highly relevant to a better understanding of post-embryonic formation of lateral organs in plants, and the elusive coordination of shoot and root morphogenesis.