The interaction between glucose and cytokinin signaling in controlling Arabidopsis thaliana seedling root growth and development

Abstract

Cytokinin (CK) and glucose (GLC) control several common responses in plants. There is an extensive overlap between CK and GLC signal transduction pathways in Arabidopsis. Physiologically, both GLC and CK could regulate root length in light. CK interacts with GLC via HXK1 dependent pathway for root length control. Wild-type (WT) roots cannot elongate in the GLC free medium while CK-receptor mutant ARABIDOPSIS HISTIDINE KINASE4 (ahk4) and type B ARR triple mutant ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR1, 10,11 (arr1, 10,11) roots could elongate even in the absence of GLC as compared with the WT. The root hair initiation was also found defective in CK signaling mutants ahk4, arr1,10,11 and arr3,4,5,6,8,9 on increasing GLC concentration (up to 3%); and lesser number of root hairs were visible even at 5% GLC as compared with the WT. Out of 941 BAP regulated genes, 103 (11%) genes were involved in root growth and development. Out of these 103 genes, 60 (58%) genes were also regulated by GLC. GLC could regulate 5736 genes, which include 327 (6%) genes involved in root growth and development. Out of these 327 genes, 60 (18%) genes were also regulated by BAP. Both GLC and CK signaling cannot alter root length in light in auxin signaling mutant AUXIN RESPONSE3/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID17 (axr3/iaa17) suggesting that they may involve auxin signaling component as a nodal point. Therefore CK- and GLC- signaling are involved in controlling different aspects of root growth and development such as root length, with auxin signaling components working as downstream target.