Control of leaf morphogenesis by microRNAs

• Published in: Nature Vol. 425; no. 6955; pp. 257 - 263
• Main Authors: Carrington, James C, Weigel, Detlef, Palatnik, Javier F, Allen, Edwards, Wu, Xuelin, Schommer, Carla, Schwab, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 18.09.2003; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Conserved Sequence; Flowers & plants; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes, Plant - genetics; MicroRNAs - genetics; MicroRNAs - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Morphogenesis; Mutation; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Phenotype; Phylogeny; Plant growth. Development of the storage organs; Plant Leaves - genetics; Plant Leaves - growth & development; Plant physiology and development; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; RNA, Plant - genetics; RNA, Plant - metabolism; Transgenes; Trees; Vegetative apparatus, growth and morphogenesis. Senescence; Morphogenesis; Regulation(control); Vegetals; RNA; Genetic determinism
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature01958

Plants with altered microRNA metabolism have pleiotropic developmental defects, but direct evidence for microRNAs regulating specific aspects of plant morphogenesis has been lacking. In a genetic screen, we identified the JAW locus, which produces a microRNA that can guide messenger RNA cleavage of several TCP genes controlling leaf development. MicroRNA-guided cleavage of TCP4 mRNA is necessary to prevent aberrant activity of the TCP4 gene expressed from its native promoter. In addition, overexpression of wild-type and microRNA-resistant TCP variants demonstrates that mRNA cleavage is largely sufficient to restrict TCP function to its normal domain of activity. TCP genes with microRNA target sequences are found in a wide range of species, indicating that microRNA-mediated control of leaf morphogenesis is conserved in plants with very different leaf forms.