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Regulation of phyllotaxis by polar auxin transport

Nature volume 426, pages 255–260 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The regular arrangement of leaves around a plant's stem, called phyllotaxis, has for centuries attracted the attention of philosophers, mathematicians and natural scientists; however, to date, studies of phyllotaxis have been largely theoretical. Leaves and flowers are formed from the shoot apical meristem, triggered by the plant hormone auxin. Auxin is transported through plant tissues by specific cellular influx and efflux carrier proteins. Here we show that proteins involved in auxin transport regulate phyllotaxis. Our data indicate that auxin is transported upwards into the meristem through the epidermis and the outermost meristem cell layer. Existing leaf primordia act as sinks, redistributing auxin and creating its heterogeneous distribution in the meristem. Auxin accumulation occurs only at certain minimal distances from existing primordia, defining the position of future primordia. This model for phyllotaxis accounts for its reiterative nature, as well as its regularity and stability.

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Figure 1: Localization of the PIN1 protein in Arabidopsis apices.
Figure 2: Auxin-induced leaf and flower formation and PIN1 expression in mutants of Arabidopsis.
Figure 3: The role of PIN1 in organ separation and delimitation.
Figure 4: Localization and function of AUX1 in the meristem.
Figure 5: Model for the role of polar auxin transport in phyllotaxis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Moore, J. Stuurman and S. Zeeman for critical reading of the manuscript, and T. Vernoux for generating pin1;pid double mutants and H. Morin for supporting experiments. This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and from the European Union.

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Author notes

  1. Didier Reinhardt and Eva-Rachele Pesce: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland

    Didier Reinhardt, Eva-Rachele Pesce, Pia Stieger, Therese Mandel & Cris Kuhlemeier

  2. Institute of Pharmacology, University of Bern, Friedbühlstrasse 49, 3010, Bern, Switzerland

    Kurt Baltensperger

  3. School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Malcolm Bennett

  4. Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire, INRA, Route de Saint Cyr, 78026, Versailles cedex, France

    Jan Traas

  5. Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 3, D-72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Jiří Friml

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  1. Didier Reinhardt
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Correspondence to Cris Kuhlemeier.

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Reinhardt, D., Pesce, ER., Stieger, P. et al. Regulation of phyllotaxis by polar auxin transport. Nature 426, 255–260 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02081

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