ENHANCED GRAVITROPISM 2 coordinates molecular adaptations to gravistimulation in the elongation zone of barley roots

Summary

• Root gravitropism includes gravity perception in the root cap, signal transduction between root cap and elongation zone, and curvature response in the elongation zone. The barley (Hordeum vulgare) mutant enhanced gravitropism 2 (egt2) displays a hypergravitropic root phenotype.

• We compared the transcriptomic reprogramming of the root cap, the meristem and the elongation zone of wild type and egt2 seminal roots upon gravistimulation in a time-course experiment and identified direct interaction partners of EGT2 by yeast-two-hybrid screening and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) validation.

• We demonstrated that the elongation zone is subjected to most transcriptomic changes after gravistimulation. Here, 35% of graviregulated genes are also transcriptionally controlled by EGT2, suggesting a central role of this gene in controlling the molecular networks associated with gravitropic bending. Gene co-expression analyses suggested a role of EGT2 in cell wall and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related processes, in which direct interaction partners of EGT2 regulated by EGT2 and gravity might be involved.

• Taken together, this study demonstrated the central role of EGT2 and its interaction partners in the networks controlling root zone-specific transcriptomic reprogramming of barley roots upon gravistimulation. These findings can contribute to the development of novel root idiotypes leading to improved crop performance.