Combining growth-promoting genes leads to positive epistasis in Arabidopsis thaliana

Several genes positively influence final leaf size in Arabidopsis when mutated or overexpressed. The connections between these growth regulators are still poorly understood although such knowledge would further contribute to understand the processes driving leaf growth. In this study, we performed a...

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Published ineLife Vol. 3; p. e02252
Main Authors Vanhaeren, Hannes, Gonzalez, Nathalie, Coppens, Frederik, De Milde, Liesbeth, Van Daele, Twiggy, Vermeersch, Mattias, Eloy, Nubia B, Storme, Veronique, Inzé, Dirk
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 29.04.2014
eLife Sciences Publication
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subjects
Arabidopsis
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - growth & development
Cell division
cell expansion
Cell growth
Cell proliferation
Epistasis
Epistasis, Genetic
Experiments
Gene expression
gene interaction
Genes, Plant
Growth regulators
Hypotheses
leaf growth
Leaves
Life Sciences
Mutation
organ size control
Plant Biology
Plant Leaves - growth & development
cell division
gene interaction
leaf growth
cell expansion
organ size control
epistasis
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Summary:Several genes positively influence final leaf size in Arabidopsis when mutated or overexpressed. The connections between these growth regulators are still poorly understood although such knowledge would further contribute to understand the processes driving leaf growth. In this study, we performed a combinatorial screen with 13 transgenic Arabidopsis lines with an increased leaf size. We found that from 61 analyzed combinations, 39% showed an additional increase in leaf size and most resulted from a positive epistasis on growth. Similar to what is found in other organisms in which such an epistasis assay was performed, only few genes were highly connected in synergistic combinations as we observed a positive epistasis in the majority of the combinations with samba, BRI1(OE) or SAUR19(OE). Furthermore, positive epistasis was found with combinations of genes with a similar mode of action, but also with genes which affect distinct processes, such as cell proliferation and cell expansion.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02252.001.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.02252