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Updated: Jun 10, 2025

Lateral Root Inducible System in Arabidopsis and Maize
Published on: January 14, 2016
MCTP controls nucleocytoplasmic partitioning of AUXIN RESPONSE FACTORs during lateral root development
Lijie Xuan1, Jiayi Li1, Yupeng Jiang1
1Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds/Joint Center for Single Cell Biology, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Abstract:
The plant hormone auxin orchestrates almost all aspects of plant growth and development. AUXIN RESPONSE FACTORs (ARFs) control the transcription of auxin-responsive genes, forming cytoplasmic condensates to modulate auxin sensitivity and diversify auxin response regulation. However, the dynamic control of ARF distribution across different subcellular compartments remains largely obscure. Here, we show that three MULTIPLE C2 DOMAIN AND TRANSMEMBRANE REGION PROTEINs (MCTPs), MCTP3, MCTP4, and MCTP6, control ARF nucleocytoplasmic partitioning and determine lateral root development. MCTP3/4/6 are highly expressed in lateral roots and specifically interact with ARF7 and ARF19 to dissolve their cytoplasmic condensates. This promotes ARF nuclear localization in lateral root primordia and enhances auxin signaling during lateral root formation. Our findings confer MCTP as a key switch to modulate auxin responses and outline an MCTP-ARF signaling cascade that is crucial for the establishment of the plant root system.
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