Natural Variation Identifies ICARUS1, a Universal Gene Required for Cell Proliferation and Growth at High Temperatures in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Wangsheng Zhu,Israel Ausin,Sureshkumar Balasubramanian,David Powell,Carlos Alonso-Blanco,Vignesh Sundaramoorthi,Sridevi Sureshkumar,F Xavier Picó,Dieter Bulach,Andrei Seleznev,Belén Méndez-Vigo,Torsten Seemann,Kirsten Bomblies

doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005085

Abstract

Plants are highly sensitive to environmental changes and even small variations in ambient temperature have severe consequences on their growth and development. Temperature affects multiple aspects of plant development, but the processes and mechanisms underlying thermo-sensitive growth responses are mostly unknown. Here we exploit natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana to identify and characterize novel components and processes mediating thermo-sensitive growth responses in plants. Phenotypic screening of wild accessions identified several strains displaying pleiotropic growth defects, at cellular and organism levels, specifically at high ambient temperatures. Positional cloning and characterization of the underlying gene revealed that ICARUS1 (ICA1), which encodes a protein of the tRNAHis guanylyl transferase (Thg1) superfamily, is required for plant growth at high temperatures. Transcriptome and gene marker analyses together with DNA content measurements show that ICA1 loss-of-function results in down regulation of cell cycle associated genes at high temperatures, which is linked with a block in G2/M transition and endoreduplication. In addition, plants with mutations in ICA1 show enhanced sensitivity to DNA damage. Characterization of additional strains that carry lesions in ICA1, but display normal growth, shows that alternative splicing is likely to alleviate the deleterious effects of some natural mutations. Furthermore, analyses of worldwide and regional collections of natural accessions indicate that ICA1 loss-of-function has arisen several times independently, and that these occur at high frequency in some local populations. Overall our results suggest that ICA1-mediated-modulation of fundamental processes such as tRNAHis maturation, modify plant growth responses to temperature changes in a quantitative and reversible manner, in natural populations.

Highlights

Environmental perturbations can often reveal cryptic phenotypes, which in turn can uncover mechanisms associated with environmental regulation of growth and development [1,2,3,4,5]
The authors exploit natural variation in the commonly occurring weed thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) and identify a gene referred to as ICARUS1 to be required for plant growth at higher ambient temperatures
Using a combination of computational, molecular and cell biological approaches, the authors demonstrate that allelic variation at ICARUS1, which encodes an enzyme required for the fundamental biochemical process of tRNAHis maturation, underlies variation in thermo-sensory growth responses of A. thaliana

Summary

Introduction

Environmental perturbations can often reveal cryptic phenotypes, which in turn can uncover mechanisms associated with environmental regulation of growth and development [1,2,3,4,5]. Vernalization, the acceleration of flowering in response to exposure to winter-like temperatures, is one of the developmental processes well studied at the molecular level [16, 17]. In contrast to this response to extreme temperatures, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying thermo-sensory responses within moderate growth temperature ranges [14]. The presence of H2A.Z in the gene body accounted for only part of this, suggesting that other factors contribute to the modulation of plant growth responses to ambient temperature variation

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Discussion

Conclusion