An Auxin Transport-Based Model of Root Branching in Arabidopsis thaliana
Open Access
- 19 November 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 3 (11), e3673
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003673
Abstract
Root architecture is a crucial part of plant adaptation to soil heterogeneity and is mainly controlled by root branching. The process of root system development can be divided into two successive steps: lateral root initiation and lateral root development/emergence which are controlled by different fluxes of the plant hormone auxin. While shoot architecture appears to be highly regular, following rules such as the phyllotactic spiral, root architecture appears more chaotic. We used stochastic modeling to extract hidden rules regulating root branching in Arabidopsis thaliana. These rules were used to build an integrative mechanistic model of root ramification based on auxin. This model was experimentally tested using plants with modified rhythm of lateral root initiation or mutants perturbed in auxin transport. Our analysis revealed that lateral root initiation and lateral root development/emergence are interacting with each other to create a global balance between the respective ratio of initiation and emergence. A mechanistic model based on auxin fluxes successfully predicted this property and the phenotype alteration of auxin transport mutants or plants with modified rythms of lateral root initiation. This suggests that root branching is controlled by mechanisms of lateral inhibition due to a competition between initiation and development/emergence for auxin.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- OpenAlea: a visual programming and component-based software platform for plant modellingFunctional Plant Biology, 2008
- Auxin fluxes in the root apex co-regulate gravitropism and lateral root initiationJournal of Experimental Botany, 2007
- Expression Profiling of Auxin-treated Arabidopsis Roots: Toward a Molecular Analysis of Lateral Root EmergencePlant and Cell Physiology, 2006
- Plastic plants and patchy soilsJournal of Experimental Botany, 2005
- GAL4-GFP enhancer trap lines for genetic manipulation of lateral root development in Arabidopsis thalianaJournal of Experimental Botany, 2005
- Local, Efflux-Dependent Auxin Gradients as a Common Module for Plant Organ FormationCell, 2003
- Estimating Hidden Semi-Markov Chains From Discrete SequencesJournal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 2003
- Inhibition of Auxin Movement from the Shoot into the Root Inhibits Lateral Root Development in ArabidopsisPlant Physiology, 1998
- Phyllotaxis as a physical self-organized growth processPhysical Review Letters, 1992
- A theory of the regulation of phyllotaxis based on Lupinus albusPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, 1962