ARF5/MONOPTEROS directly regulates miR390 expression in the Arabidopsis thaliana primary root meristem

Abstract

SUMMARYThe root meristem is organized around a quiescent centre surrounded by stem cells that generate all cell types of the root. In the transit amplifying compartment progeny of stem cells further divide prior to differentiation. Auxin controls the size of this transit-amplifying compartment via Auxin Response Factors (ARF) that interact with Auxin Response Elements (AuxRE) in the promoter of their targets. The microRNA miR390 regulates abundance of ARF2, ARF3 and ARF4 by triggering the production of trans-acting (ta)-siRNA from TAS3. This miR390/TAS3/ARF regulatory module confers sensitivity and robustness to auxin responses in diverse developmental contexts. Here, we show that miR390 is expressed in the transit-amplifying compartment of the root meristem where it modulates response to auxin. A single AuxRE bound by ARF5/MONOPTEROS (MP) in miR390 promoter is necessary for miR390 expression in this compartment. We show that interfering with ARF5/MP dependent auxin signaling attenuates miR390 expression in the transit-amplifying compartment. Our results show that ARF5/MP regulates directly the expression of miR390 in the basal root meristem. We propose that ARF5, miR390 and the ta-siRNAs-regulated ARFs are necessary to maintain the size of the transit-amplifying region of the meristem.One sentence summaryThe expression of miR390 in the Arabidopsis basal root meristem is controlled by ARF5/MONOPTEROS.