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PRC2 represses dedifferentiation of mature somatic cells in Arabidopsis

Ikeuchi, Momoko; Iwase, Akira; Rymen, Bart; Harashima, Hirofumi; Shibata, Michitaro; Ohnuma, Mariko; Breuer, Christian; Morao, Ana Karina; de Lucas, Miguel; De Veylder, Lieven; Goodrich, Justin; Brady, Siobhan M.; Roudier, François; Sugimoto, Keiko

PRC2 represses dedifferentiation of mature somatic cells in Arabidopsis Thumbnail


Authors

Momoko Ikeuchi

Akira Iwase

Bart Rymen

Hirofumi Harashima

Michitaro Shibata

Mariko Ohnuma

Christian Breuer

Ana Karina Morao

Lieven De Veylder

Justin Goodrich

Siobhan M. Brady

François Roudier

Keiko Sugimoto



Abstract

Plant somatic cells are generally acknowledged to retain totipotency, the potential to develop into any cell type within an organism. This astonishing plasticity may contribute to a high regenerative capacity on severe damage, but how plants control this potential during normal post-embryonic development remains largely unknown1,2. Here we show that POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 (PRC2), a chromatin regulator that maintains gene repression through histone modification, prevents dedifferentiation of mature somatic cells in Arabidopsis thaliana roots. Loss-of-function mutants in PRC2 subunits initially develop unicellular root hairs indistinguishable from those in wild type but fail to retain the differentiated state, ultimately resulting in the generation of an unorganized cell mass and somatic embryos from a single root hair. Strikingly, mutant root hairs complete the normal endoreduplication programme, increasing their nuclear ploidy, but subsequently reinitiate mitotic division coupled with successive DNA replication. Our data show that the WOUND INDUCED DEDIFFERENTIATION3 (WIND3) and LEAFY COTYLEDON2 (LEC2) genes are among the PRC2 targets involved in this reprogramming, as their ectopic overexpression partly phenocopies the dedifferentiation phenotype of PRC2 mutants. These findings unveil the pivotal role of PRC2-mediated gene repression in preventing unscheduled reprogramming of fully differentiated plant cells.

Citation

Ikeuchi, M., Iwase, A., Rymen, B., Harashima, H., Shibata, M., Ohnuma, M., …Sugimoto, K. (2015). PRC2 represses dedifferentiation of mature somatic cells in Arabidopsis. Nature Plants, 1(7), Article 15089. https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.89

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 29, 2015
Publication Date Jul 1, 2015
Deposit Date Nov 11, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 18, 2016
Journal Nature Plants
Print ISSN 2055-026X
Electronic ISSN 2055-0278
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 1
Issue 7
Article Number 15089
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.89

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