Abscisic acid transporters cooperate to control seed germination.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26334616.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9113 and PMC identifier 4569717.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Seed germination is a key developmental process that has to be tightly controlled to avoid germination under unfavourable conditions. Abscisic acid (ABA) is an essential repressor of seed germination. In Arabidopsis, it has been shown that the endosperm, a single cell layer surrounding the embryo, synthesizes and continuously releases ABA towards the embryo. The mechanism of ABA transport from the endosperm to the embryo was hitherto unknown. Here we show that four AtABCG transporters act in concert to deliver ABA from the endosperm to the embryo: AtABCG25 and AtABCG31 export ABA from the endosperm, whereas AtABCG30 and AtABCG40 import ABA into the embryo. Thus, this work establishes that radicle extension and subsequent embryonic growth are suppressed by the coordinated activity of multiple ABA transporters expressed in different tissues.
Medical subject headings
- ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters
- Abscisic Acid
- Arabidopsis
- Arabidopsis Proteins
- Endosperm
- Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
- Germination
- Seeds