The phytohormones auxin and cytokinin control plant development through a complex network of interactions which include synergistic, additive, and opposite effects whose mechanisms are unknown. The auxin-insensitive diageotropica (dgt) mutant provided a tool to dissect the relationship between auxin- and cytokinin-induced responses in tomato. Morphological, physiological, and molecular data support the proposal that auxin and cytokinins control a common set of developmental processes through separate signal transduction pathways which interact downstream from the DGT gene product. Morphological traits of dgt plants, such as reduced root and shoot growth, reduced leaf complexity, and reduced apical dominance were phenocopied by exogenous cytokinin application to wild-type plants, demonstrating that cytokinins and the DGT-mediated auxin response control a common set of phenotypic characteristics. Because the dgt mutation had no detectable effects on the levels of endogenous cytokinins or on the cytokinin sensitivity of whole plants,
cytokinins were hypothesized to cause dgt-like effects on plant development through inhibiting auxin-induced responses. This hypothesis was supported by physiological experiments showing that auxin-induced elongation and ethylene synthesis were inhibited in cytokinin-treated wild-type and in untreated dgt hypocotyls. Differences between the effects of cytokinins and the dgt mutation on auxin responses became apparent at the molecular level. Experiments on the auxin-induced accumulation of transcripts for two ACC-synthase genes and one SAUR gene demonstrated that cytokinin treatment selectively reduced the auxin-induced expression of only one ACC-synthase gene, while the dgt mutation inhibited the auxin-inducibility of all three genes. The effects of the dgt mutation were thus more pleiotropic than the cytokinin effects, suggesting that cytokinins inhibit auxin-responses downstream from the DGT gene product. In
vitro culture of dgt hypocotyl explants and calli demonstrated shared or interacting signal transduction pathways for auxin and cytokinin in the stimulation of cell division, and independent pathways for the control of organ regeneration and vascular differentiation. / Graduation date: 1997
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34114 |
| Date | 13 June 1996 |
| Creators | Coenen, Catharina |
| Contributors | Lomax, Terri L. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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