Poster Presentation International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

Sweet shaping of root system architecture under dehydration stress (#24)

Dhriti Singh 1 2 , Prakhar Awasthi 1 , Aishwarye Sharma 1 , Harsha Samtani 1 , Brihaspati Narayan Shukla 1 , Ashverya Laxmi 1
  1. National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, Delhi, India
  2. Umeå University, Umeå, VäSTERBOTTEN, Sweden

Dehydration stress is one of the leading factors limiting crop yield globally. In this study, we report that Glc regulates root directional growth under high agar induced dehydration stress via TOR signaling pathway. TOR RNAi (tori) seedlings were hyposensitive, whereas seedlings overexpressing TOR (G548) were hypersensitive to Glc induced root growth deviation. Comparison of dehydration-responsive transcriptome of tori and Col highlights crucial involvement of TOR signaling in plant stress response. Our work revealed that dehydration stress induced straightening of roots requires CK signaling. Glc signaling and CK signaling inhibit each other under stress conditions. Glc also modulates auxin signaling and transport to regulate root directional growth. Moreover, Glc-TOR induces asymmetric distribution of DR5::GFP across the root tip, whereas dehydration stress and CK abolish the asymmetric distribution of DR5::GFP. Notably, agar-induced dehydration stress caused loop formation in roots and stunted growth under horizontal growth conditions. However, Glc significantly reduced loop formation in the roots and promoted a root architecture that allowed for better surface exploration of the medium. Glc induced change in root architecture involves downstream CK and auxin signaling. Altogether, Glc mediated change in root direction enhances the plasticity of roots and is beneficial under dehydration stress.