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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Measuring Gene Expression in Bombarded Barley Aleurone Layers with Increased Throughput
Published on: March 30, 2018
A Repressor Protein Complex Regulates Leaf Growth in Arabidopsis
Nathalie Gonzalez1, Laurens Pauwels1, Alexandra Baekelandt1
1Department of Plant Systems Biology, Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), 9052 Ghent, Belgium Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.
Abstract:
Cell number is an important determinant of final organ size. In the leaf, a large proportion of cells are derived from the stomatal lineage. Meristemoids, which are stem cell-like precursor cells, undergo asymmetric divisions, generating several pavement cells adjacent to the two guard cells. However, the mechanism controlling the asymmetric divisions of these stem cells prior to differentiation is not well understood. Here, we characterized PEAPOD (PPD) proteins, the only transcriptional regulators known to negatively regulate meristemoid division. PPD proteins interact with KIX8 and KIX9, which act as adaptor proteins for the corepressor TOPLESS. D3-type cyclin encoding genes were identified among direct targets of PPD2, being negatively regulated by PPDs and KIX8/9. Accordingly, kix8 kix9 mutants phenocopied PPD loss-of-function producing larger leaves resulting from increased meristemoid amplifying divisions. The identified conserved complex might be specific for leaf growth in the second dimension, since it is not present in Poaceae (grasses), which also lack the developmental program it controls.
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