RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Protein complex stoichiometry and expression dynamics of transcription factors modulate stem cell division
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 439331
DO 10.1101/439331
A1 Natalie M. Clark
A1 Adam P. Fisher
A1 Barbara Berckmans
A1 Lisa Van den Broeck
A1 Emily C. Nelson
A1 Thomas T. Nguyen
A1 Estefano Bustillo-Avendaño
A1 Sophia G. Zebell
A1 Miguel Moreno-Risueno
A1 Rüdiger Simon
A1 Kimberly L. Gallagher
A1 Rosangela Sozzani
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/02/04/439331.abstract
AB Stem cells divide and differentiate to form all the specialized cell types in a multicellular organism. In the Arabidopsis root, stem cells are maintained in an undifferentiated state by a less mitotically active population of cells called the Quiescent Center (QC). Determining how the QC regulates the surrounding stem cell initials, or what makes the QC fundamentally different from the actively dividing initials, is important for understanding how stem cell divisions are maintained. Here, we gained insight into the differences between the QC and the Cortex Endodermis Initials (CEI) by studying the mobile transcription factor SHORTROOT (SHR) and its binding partner SCARECROW (SCR). We constructed an Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) model of SHR and SCR in the QC and CEI which incorporated the stoichiometry of the SHR-SCR complex as well as upstream transcriptional regulation of SHR and SCR. Our model prediction coupled with experimental validation showed that high levels of the SHR-SCR complex is associated with more CEI division but less QC division. Further, our model prediction allowed us to establish the timing of QC and CEI division and propose that SHR repression of QC division depends on the formation of SHR homodimer. Thus, our results support that SHR-SCR protein complex stoichiometry and regulation of SHR transcription modulate the division timing of two different specialized cell types in the root stem cell niche.