Dialing down a common plant hormone makes cuttings root far more reliably
Dong YY, Jiang YT, Wang YX, Chang JH, Yang JT
Propagation
The cutting you stuck in water last spring that never rooted may have been sabotaged by its own hormone signaling, and knowing which signal to dial down could reshape how growers and gardeners propagate plants.
Plants can regrow roots from a cut stem or leaf, which is the whole basis of taking cuttings, but they don't always do it reliably. A group of natural plant hormones called brassinosteroids act as a brake on this process by cutting off the chemical signal that tells the plant where to build roots. Dialing down brassinosteroids, whether through genetics or targeted treatments, makes plants root from cuttings much more readily.
Key Findings
Reduced brassinosteroid signaling promotes root regeneration from cuttings, while elevated signaling suppresses it, identifying brassinosteroids as a previously unreported negative regulator of this process.
Brassinosteroids activate a transcription factor (BZR1) that directly represses two auxin transporter genes (PIN1 and PIN3), cutting off auxin supply to wound sites and blocking root primordia formation.
The mechanism is conserved across three distinct plant families: rapeseed (Brassica napus), tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).
chevron_right Technical Summary
Brassinosteroids, a class of plant hormones, suppress root regeneration from cuttings by blocking auxin transport to wound sites. Reducing brassinosteroid activity accelerates root formation, and the finding holds across rapeseed, tobacco, and tomato.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Brassinosteroids negatively regulate plant de novo root regeneration.
De novo root regeneration (DNRR) is essential for plant survival under mechanical damage and agricultural productivity, and plant hormones play a pivotal role in this process. While auxin, jasmonat...
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Rapeseed, also known as rape and oilseed rape and canola, is a yellow-flowered member of the Brassicaceae family.