Low-Fluence Red Light Increases the Transport and Biosynthesis of Auxin

Xing Liu,Gary Gardner,Jerry D Cohen

doi:10.1104/pp.111.181388

Abstract

In plants, light is an important environmental signal that induces photomorphogenesis and interacts with endogenous signals, including hormones. We found that light increased polar auxin transport in dark-grown Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) hypocotyls. In tomato, this increase was induced by low-fluence red or blue light followed by 1 d of darkness. It was reduced in phyA, phyB1, and phyB2 tomato mutants and was reversed by far-red light applied immediately after the red or blue light exposure, suggesting that phytochrome is involved in this response. We further found that the free indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) level in hypocotyl regions below the hook was increased by red light, while the level of conjugated IAA was unchanged. Analysis of IAA synthesized from [¹³C]indole or [¹³C]tryptophan (Trp) revealed that both Trp-dependent and Trp-independent IAA biosynthesis were increased by low-fluence red light in the top section (meristem, cotyledons, and hook), and the Trp-independent pathway appears to become the primary route for IAA biosynthesis after red light exposure. IAA biosynthesis in tissues below the top section was not affected by red light, suggesting that the increase of free IAA in this region was due to increased transport of IAA from above. Our study provides a comprehensive view of light effects on the transport and biosynthesis of IAA, showing that red light increases both IAA biosynthesis in the top section and polar auxin transport in hypocotyls, leading to unchanged free IAA levels in the top section and increased free IAA levels in the lower hypocotyl regions.

Highlights

In plants, light is an important environmental signal that induces photomorphogenesis and interacts with endogenous signals, including hormones
It was reported that the transport of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in darkgrown Arabidopsis hypocotyls was very low and not inhibited by naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) (Rashotte et al, 2003), suggesting that a very sensitive method is necessary to measure polar auxin transport (PAT) in etiolated seedlings
After a 3-h transport period, the hypocotyl section was cut into halves (Fig. 1B), and the basipetal transport of IAA was determined as a percentage of radioactivity in the basal section and the receiver block divided by the total radioactivity in the tissue plus the receiver block

Summary

Introduction

Light is an important environmental signal that induces photomorphogenesis and interacts with endogenous signals, including hormones. We found that light increased polar auxin transport in dark-grown Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) hypocotyls In tomato, this increase was induced by low-fluence red or blue light followed by 1 d of darkness. We further found that the free indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) level in hypocotyl regions below the hook was increased by red light, while the level of conjugated IAA was unchanged. Upon transition from dark growth to light growth, hypocotyl elongation rate decreases, hooks unfold, cotyledons open, and the photosynthetic machinery develops Such changes are rapid and complex, and a series of photoreceptors are involved in sensing the quantity and quality of light, including phytochromes (red [R] light and far-red [FR] light receptors), cryptochromes (blue [B] and UV-A light receptors), phototropins (B light receptors), and UV-B photoreceptors (Casal et al, 1998; Briggs and Olney, 2001). The shade avoidance response required polar auxin transport (PAT), and the auxin transport facilitator protein PIN-FORMED3 (PIN3) was recently found to play a critical role in this process (Steindler et al, 1999; Keuskamp et al, 2010)

Methods

Results

Conclusion