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Science 24 October 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5901, pp. 594 - 597
DOI: 10.1126/science.1160158
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Reports

Receptor-Like Kinase ACR4 Restricts Formative Cell Divisions in the Arabidopsis Root

Ive De Smet,1,2,4* Valya Vassileva,1,2*{dagger} Bert De Rybel,1,2 Mitchell P. Levesque,3{ddagger} Wim Grunewald,1,2 Daniël Van Damme,1,2 Giel Van Noorden,1,2 Mirande Naudts,1,2 Gert Van Isterdael,1,2 Rebecca De Clercq,1,2 Jean Y. Wang,3 Nicholas Meuli,5 Steffen Vanneste,1,2 Jirí Friml,1,2 Pierre Hilson,1,2 Gerd Jürgens,4 Gwyneth C. Ingram,5 Dirk Inzé,1,2 Philip N. Benfey,3 Tom Beeckman1,2§

During the development of multicellular organisms, organogenesis and pattern formation depend on formative divisions to specify and maintain pools of stem cells. In higher plants, these activities are essential to shape the final root architecture because the functioning of root apical meristems and the de novo formation of lateral roots entirely rely on it. We used transcript profiling on sorted pericycle cells undergoing lateral root initiation to identify the receptor-like kinase ACR4 of Arabidopsis as a key factor both in promoting formative cell divisions in the pericycle and in constraining the number of these divisions once organogenesis has been started. In the root tip meristem, ACR4 shows a similar action by controlling cell proliferation activity in the columella cell lineage. Thus, ACR4 function reveals a common mechanism of formative cell division control in the main root tip meristem and during lateral root initiation.

1 Department of Plant Systems Biology, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
2 Department of Molecular Genetics, Ghent University, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
3 Department of Biology and Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Center for Systems Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
4 Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), Auf der Morgenstelle 3, University of Tübingen, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.
5 Institute of Molecular Plant Science, Rutherford Building, Kings Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JR, UK.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} Present address: Academik Metodi Popov Institute of Plant Physiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Academik Georgi Bonchev Street, Building 21, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.

{ddagger} Present address: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Department of Genetics and Genomics, Spemannstrasse 35/III, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany.

§ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tom.beeckman{at}psb.ugent.be

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