Abstract
Oryza longistaminata, the African wild rice, can propagate vegetatively through rhizomes. Rhizomes elongate horizontally underground as sink organs, however, they undergo a developmental transition that shifts their growth to the surface of the ground to become aerial stems. This particular stage is essential for the establishment of new ramets. While several determinants such as abiotic stimuli and plant hormones have been reported as key factors effecting developmental transition in aerial stem, the cause of this phenomenon in rhizome remains elusive. This study shows that depletion of nutrients, particularly sucrose, is the key stimulus that induces the developmental transition in rhizomes, as indicated by the gradient of sugars from the base to the tip of the rhizome. Sugar treatments revealed that sucrose specifically represses the developmental transition from rhizome to aerial stem by inhibiting the expression of sugar metabolism and hormone synthesis genes at the bending point. Sucrose depletion affected several factors contributing to the developmental transition of rhizome including signal transduction, transcriptional regulation and plant hormone balance.
Highlights
Plants ensure the continuation of its own kind by either sexual or asexual reproduction
Our study shows that sucrose is the key factor that represses this phenomenon by downregulating the transcripts which are related to hormone and cell wall synthesis at the bending point in the O. longistaminata rhizomes
Because the rhizome is incapable of photosynthesis, it relies on nutrient supply from the parental shoot to develop
Summary
Plants ensure the continuation of its own kind by either sexual or asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction could be via vegetative propagation wherein a part of the parental plant gives rise to a new plant that is genetically identical to that of the parent. An example is the potato which forms tubers at the tip of stolons as sink organs. Buds on these tubers can give rise to new individuals. On the other hand, propagates through rhizomes which elongate underground. Rhizomes transport water and nutrients, Kanako Bessho-Uehara and Jovano Erris Nugroho contributed to this paper
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