TY - JOUR T1 - Tissue specific auxin biosynthesis regulates leaf vein patterning JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/184275 SP - 184275 AU - Irina Kneuper AU - William Teale AU - Jonathan Edward Dawson AU - Ryuji Tsugeki AU - Klaus Palme AU - Eleni Katifori AU - Franck Anicet Ditengou Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/04/184275.abstract N2 - The plant hormone auxin (indole-3-acetic acid, IAA) has a profound influence over plant cell growth and differentiation. Current understanding of vein development in leaves is based on the canalization of auxin into self-reinforcing streams which determine the sites of vascular cell differentiation. However, the role of auxin biosynthesis during leaf development in the context of leaf vein patterning has not been much studied so far. Here we characterize the context specific importance of auxin biosynthesis, auxin transport and mechanical regulations in a growing leaf. We show that domains of auxin biosynthesis predict the positioning of vascular cells. In mutants that have reduced capacity in auxin biosynthesis, leaf vein formation is decreased. While exogenous application of auxin does not compensate the loss of vein formation in auxin biosynthesis mutants, inhibition of polar auxin transport does compensate the vein-less phenotype, suggesting that the site-specific accumulation of auxin, which is likely to be mainly caused by the local auxin biosynthesis, is important for leaf vein formation. Our computational model of midvein development brings forth the interplay of cell stiffness and auxin dependent cell division. We propose that local auxin biosynthesis has the integral role in leaf vascular development.HighlightsBuilt spatially and temporally resolved auxin biosynthesis map in growing leaf primordium of Arabidopsis.Expression domains of auxin biosynthetic enzymes within primordia strongly correlated with leaf vein initiation.Results show that domains of auxin biosynthesis within primordia drive leaf vein initiation and patterning.Highlights and eTOC Blurb Using modelling and a spatiotemporal analysis of auxin biosynthesis and transport, Kneuper et al. show that tissue specific auxin biosynthesis defines places of vein initiation hence underlining the importance of auxin concentration in vein initiation. ER -