Phytochrome-dependent responsiveness to root-derived cytokinins enables coordinated elongation responses to combined light and nitrate cues

Pierre Gautrat*, Sara Buti, Andrés Romanowski, Michiel Lammers, Sanne E.A. Matton, Guido Buijs, Ronald Pierik*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Plants growing at high densities can detect competitors through changes in the composition of light reflected by neighbours. In response to this far-red-enriched light, plants elicit adaptive shade avoidance responses for light capture, but these need to be balanced against other input signals, such as nutrient availability. Here, we investigated how Arabidopsis integrates shade and nitrate signalling. We unveiled that nitrate modulates shade avoidance via a previously unknown shade response pathway that involves root-derived trans-zeatin (tZ) signal and the BEE1 transcription factor as an integrator of light and cytokinin signalling. Under nitrate-sufficient conditions, tZ promotes hypocotyl elongation specifically in the presence of supplemental far-red light. This occurs via PIF transcription factors-dependent inhibition of type-A ARRs cytokinin response inhibitors. Our data thus reveal how plants co-regulate responses to shade cues with root-derived information about nutrient availability, and how they restrict responses to this information to specific light conditions in the shoot.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8489
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2024

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Phytochrome-dependent responsiveness to root-derived cytokinins enables coordinated elongation responses to combined light and nitrate cues'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this