Victoria Gomez from the Institute of Plant Sciences Paris Saclay IPS2 (France) will talk about

Balance of organ development and defense responses is controlled by WIP transcription factors

In melon, a zinc finger transcription factor of the WIP sub-family, CmWIP1, suppresses the carpel development and leads to the formation of male flowers. To bring new insight in the function of CmWIP1, we investigated WIP proteins in Arabidopsis and melon. We showed that WIP proteins are functionally conserved across different plants species. CmWIP1 is able to restore the yellow seed phenotype in Arabidopsis tt1 (transparent testa 1/wip1) loss-of-function mutant. The ectopic expression of AtWIP1 under a carpel-specific promoter in Arabidopsis represses the growth of carpels, which mimic CmWIP1 function in melon. We showed that WIP proteins can trigger inhibition of both vegetative and reproductive organs. RNA-seq analysis on WIP overexpressing transgenic lines revealed two WIP-dependent gene-regulatory networks. One up-regulated in response to WIP and is enriched in genes related to stress signaling. The second down-regulated in response to WIP and is enriched in genes related to growth and post-embryonic development. We show that these genes expressions dynamics are shared with melon flowers. All together our data suggest that the function of WIP proteins is likely determined by their spatio-temporal expression during development.

Date : Monday, February 19th
Time : 13.00
Location : Salle des Thèses

Selected publications
– Natural and induced loss of function mutations in SlMBP21 MADS-box gene led to jointless-2 phenotype in tomato.
Gomez-Roldan MV et al.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 30 ;7(1):4402. doi : 10.1038/s41598-017-04556-1.
– Strigolactone inhibition of shoot branching.
Gomez-Roldan MV et al.
Nature 2008 Sep 11 ;455(7210):189-94. doi : 10.1038/nature07271.

RDP host : Yoan Coudert