TY - JOUR T1 - WUSCHEL acts as a rheostat on the auxin pathway to maintain apical stem cells in <em>Arabidopsis</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/468421 SP - 468421 AU - Yanfei Ma AU - Andrej Miotk AU - Zoran Šutiković AU - Anna Medzihradszky AU - Christian Wenzl AU - Olga Ermakova AU - Christophe Gaillochet AU - Joachim Forner AU - Gözde Utan AU - Klaus Brackmann AU - Carlos S. Galvan-Ampudia AU - Teva Vernoux AU - Thomas Greb AU - Jan U. Lohmann Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/13/468421.abstract N2 - During development and growth, dynamic signals need to be translated into spatially precise and temporally stable gene expression states, which define cell fate. In the context of the apical plant stem cell system, local accumulation of the small, highly mobile phytohormone auxin triggers organ initiation. Here, we show that the WUSCHEL transcription factor locally protects stem cells from differentiation by controlling the auxin signaling and response pathway via regulation of histone acetylation. Conversely, low levels of signaling are required for stem cell maintenance, demonstrating that WUSCHEL acts as a rheostat on the auxin pathway. Our results reveal an important mechanism that allows cells to differentially translate a potent and highly mobile developmental signal into appropriate cell behavior with high spatial precision and temporal robustness. ER -