Breaking the spatial restriction of pluripotency acquisition by environmental stimuli

Abstract

Plant cells have remarkable developmental plasticity, and many of them have the intrinsic potential to acquire pluripotency. Whereas some stimuli such as auxin or wounding can trigger cellular pluripotency acquisition, various other environmental signals impact the efficiency of callus formation and subsequent organ regeneration ( Ikeuchi et al., 2016 Ikeuchi M. Ogawa Y. Iwase A. Sugimoto K. Plant regeneration: cellular origins and molecular mechanisms. Development. 2016; 143: 1442-1451 Crossref PubMed Scopus (275) Google Scholar ). For instance, higher ambient temperature enhances callus formation and shoot regeneration in tissue culture conditions, which is likely mediated by the ease of H2A.Z-dependent repression ( Lambolez et al., 2022 Lambolez A. Kawamura A. Takahashi T. Rymen B. Iwase A. Favero D.S. Ikeuchi M. Suzuki T. Cortijo S. Jaeger K.E. et al. Warm temperature promotes shoot regeneration in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell Physiol. 2022; 63: 618-634 Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar ). Touch stimuli on explants determine the fate of regenerants, where de novo root formation is induced when the explants are in contact with solid media, while callus formation instead takes place from wound sites in the absence of physical contacts ( Shanmukhan et al., 2021 Shanmukhan A.P. Mathew M.M. Aiyaz M. Varaparambathu V. Kareem A. Radhakrishnan D. Prasad K. Regulation of touch-stimulated de novo root regeneration from Arabidopsis leaves. Plant Physiol. 2021; 187: 52-58 Crossref PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar ). Although these recent studies are beginning to unveil environmental effects on pluripotency acquisition, our understandings on the mechanistic basis of these regulations are still very limited.