Some ten years ago, the same teams from INRA and the University of Queensland demonstrated that a mobile signal - one unlike other identified hormones - inhibited shoot branching by preventing the development of leaf axil buds.
This signal has now been identified as a new strigolactone hormone. By using shoot-branching plant mutants that do not produce strigolactones, scientists were finally able to identify their action on plant architecture.
Like other plant hormones, strigolactones are highly specific, are active at very low concentrations, and can be transported in the plant over long distances.
Scientists already knew that this family of molecules was produced in and exuded from plant roots into the rhizosphere, in order to "attract" fungi and establish endomycorrhizal symbiosis. Such symbiosis has existed since ancient times, participated in the colonisation of land, and permitted plant productivity to be maintained in difficult conditions. Strigolactones are also involved in inducing the germination of parasite plant seeds (Striga, Orobanche). These plant pests are destroying more and more crops in our part of the world (particularly broomrape in rapeseed).
The discovery that strigolactones control shoot branching can serve as a basis for applications in horticulture, forestry and agriculture, where plant architecture and the degree of branching are major factors in production yield and quality. One possible use of these natural compounds is to modify plant architecture in crops. Unlike with other plant hormones, the application of strigolactones on the plant's aerial parts only affects their branching, without disrupting the rest of plant development.
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* and in collaboration with researchers from Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
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Source:
http://www.nature.com/
Strigolactone inhibition of shoot branching
Nature Advance Online Publication – 10 August 2008- DOI: 10.1038/nature07271
Victoria Gomez-Roldan1, Soraya Fermas2, Philip B. Brewer3, Virginie Puech-Pagès1, Elizabeth A. Dun3, Jean-Paul Pillot2, Fabien Letisse4, Radoslava Matusova5, Saida Danoun1, Jean-Charles Portais4, Harro Bouwmeester5,6, Guillaume Bécard1, Christine A. Beveridge3,7*, Catherine Rameau2* and Soizic F. Rochange1*
1 SCSV, UMR 5546 University of Toulouse III/CNRS, Castanet-Tolosan2 Station de Génétique et d’Amélioration des Plantes, Institut J.P. Bourgin, UR254 INRA, Versailles3 ARC Centre of Excellence in Integrative Legume Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia4 CNRS, UMR5504, INRA, UMR792 Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés, INSA de Toulouse, Toulouse5 Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, Pays-Bas6 Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Wageningen University, Arboretumlaan 4, 6703 BD Wageningen, Pays-Bas7 School of Integrative Biology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
*These authors have contributed in a equal way to this work.
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