TY - JOUR T1 - Exogenous Nitro-Oleic Acid inhibits primary root growth by reducing the mitosis in the meristem in <em>Arabidopsis thaliana</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.06.17.155416 SP - 2020.06.17.155416 AU - Luciano M. Di Fino AU - Ignacio Cerrudo AU - Sonia R. Salvatore AU - Francisco J. Schopfer AU - Carlos GarcĂ­a-Mata AU - Ana M. Laxalt Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/18/2020.06.17.155416.abstract N2 - Nitric oxide (NO) is a second messenger that regulates a broad range of physiological processes in plants. NO-derived molecules called reactive nitrogen species (RNS) can react with unsaturated fatty acids generating nitrated fatty acids (NO2-FA). NO2-FA work as signaling molecules in mammals where production and targets have been described under different stress conditions. Recently, NO2-FAs were detected in plants, however their role(s) on plant physiological processes is still poorly known. Here we show that exogenous application of nitro-oleic acid (NO2-OA) inhibits Arabidopsis primary root growth; this inhibition is not likely due to nitric oxide (NO) production or impaired auxin or cytokinin root responses. Deep analyses showed that roots incubated with NO2-OA had a lower cell number in the division area. Although this NO2-FA did not affect the signaling mechanisms maintaining the stem cell niche, plants incubated with NO2-OA showed a reduction of cell division in the meristematic area. Therefore, this work shows that NO2-OA inhibits mitotic processes subsequently reducing primary root growth.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -