The stem cell niche transcription factor ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR 115 participates in aluminum-induced terminal differentiation in Arabidopsis roots.

Aluminum-dependent stoppage of root growth requires the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway including the p53-like transcription factor SUPPRESSOR OF GAMMA RADIATION 1 (SOG1), which promotes terminal differentiation of the root tip in response to Al dependent cell death. Transcriptomic analyses identified Al-induced SOG1-regulated targets as candidate mediators of this growth arrest. Analysis of these factors either as loss-of-function mutants or by overexpression in the als3-1 background shows ERF115, which is a key transcription factor that in other scenarios is rate-limiting for damaged stem cell replenishment, instead participates in transition from an actively growing root to one that has terminally differentiated in response to Al toxicity. This is supported by a loss-of-function erf115 mutant raising the threshold of Al required to promote terminal differentiation of Al hypersensitive als3-1. Consistent with its key role in stoppage of root growth, a putative ERF115 barley ortholog is also upregulated following Al exposure, suggesting a conserved role for this ATR-dependent pathway in Al response. In contrast to other DNA damage agents, these results show that ERF115 and likely related family members are important determinants of terminal differentiation of the root tip following Al exposure and central outputs of the SOG1-mediated pathway in Al response.

The gain-of-function mutation blf13 in the barley orthologue of the rice growth regulator NARROW LEAF1 is associated with increased leaf width.

Canopy architecture in cereals plays an important role in determining yield. Leaf width represents one key aspect of this canopy architecture. However, our understanding of leaf width control in cereals remains incomplete. Classical mutagenesis studies in barely identified multiple morphological mutants, including those with differing leaf widths. Of these, we characterized the broad leaf13 (blf13) mutant in detail. Mutant plants form wider leaves due to increased post-initiation growth and cell proliferation. The mutant phenotype perfectly co-segregated with a missense mutation in the HvHNT1 gene which affected a highly conserved region of the encoded protein, orthologous to the rice NARROW LEAF1 (NAL1) protein. Causality of this mutation for the blf13 phenotype is further supported by correlative transcriptomic analyses and protein-protein interaction studies showing that the mutant HvNHT1 protein interacts more strongly with a known interactor than wild-type HvHNT1. The mutant HvHNT1 protein also showed stronger homodimerization compared with wild-type HvHNT1, and homology modelling suggested an additional interaction site between HvHNT1 monomers due to the blf13 mutation. Thus, the blf13 mutation parallels known gain-of-function NAL1 alleles in rice that increase leaf width and grain yield, suggesting that the blf13 mutation may have a similar agronomic potential in barley.

How Do Plants Cope with DNA Damage? A Concise Review on the DDR Pathway in Plants.

DNA damage is induced by many factors, some of which naturally occur in the environment. Because of their sessile nature, plants are especially exposed to unfavorable conditions causing DNA damage. In response to this damage, the DDR (DNA damage response) pathway is activated. This pathway is highly conserved between eukaryotes; however, there are some plant-specific DDR elements, such as SOG1-a transcription factor that is a central DDR regulator in plants. In general, DDR signaling activates transcriptional and epigenetic regulators that orchestrate the cell cycle arrest and DNA repair mechanisms upon DNA damage. The cell cycle halts to give the cell time to repair damaged DNA before replication. If the repair is successful, the cell cycle is reactivated. However, if the DNA repair mechanisms fail and DNA lesions accumulate, the cell enters the apoptotic pathway. Thereby the proper maintenance of DDR is crucial for plants to survive. It is particularly important for agronomically important species because exposure to environmental stresses causing DNA damage leads to growth inhibition and yield reduction. Thereby, gaining knowledge regarding the DDR pathway in crops may have a huge agronomic impact-it may be useful in breeding new cultivars more tolerant to such stresses. In this review, we characterize different genotoxic agents and their mode of action, describe DDR activation and signaling and summarize DNA repair mechanisms in plants.

Al-Tolerant Barley Mutant hvatr.g Shows the ATR-Regulated DNA Damage Response to Maleic Acid Hydrazide.

ATR, a DNA damage signaling kinase, is required for cell cycle checkpoint regulation and detecting DNA damage caused by genotoxic factors including Al3+ ions. We analyzed the function of the HvATR gene in response to chemical clastogen-maleic acid hydrazide (MH). For this purpose, the Al-tolerant barley TILLING mutant hvatr.g was used. We described the effects of MH on the nuclear genome of hvatr.g mutant and its WT parent cv. "Sebastian", showing that the genotoxic effect measured by TUNEL test and frequency of cells with micronuclei was much stronger in hvatr.g than in WT. MH caused a significant decrease in the mitotic activity of root cells in both genotypes, however this effect was significantly stronger in "Sebastian". The impact of MH on the roots cell cycle, analyzed using flow cytometry, showed no differences between the mutant and WT.

Aluminum Alters the Histology and Pectin Cell Wall Composition of Barley Roots.

Aluminum (Al) is one of the most important crust elements causing reduced plant production in acidic soils. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is considered to be one of the crops that is most sensitive to Al, and the root cell wall is the primary target of Al toxicity. In this study, we evaluate the possible involvement of specific pectic epitopes in the cells of barley roots in response to aluminum exposure. We targeted four different pectic epitopes recognized by LM5, LM6, LM19, and LM20 antibodies using an immunocytochemical approach. Since Al becomes available and toxic to plants in acidic soils, we performed our analyses on barley roots that had been grown in acidic conditions (pH 4.0) with and without Al and in control conditions (pH 6.0). Differences connected with the presence and distribution of the pectic epitopes between the control and Al-treated roots were observed. In the Al-treated roots, pectins with galactan sidechains were detected with a visually lower fluorescence intensity than in the control roots while pectins with arabinan sidechains were abundantly present. Furthermore, esterified homogalacturonans (HGs) were present with a visually higher fluorescence intensity compared to the control, while methyl-esterified HGs were present in a similar amount. Based on the presented results, it was concluded that methyl-esterified HG can be a marker for newly arising cell walls. Additionally, histological changes were detected in the roots grown under Al exposure. Among them, an increase in root diameter, shortening of root cap, and increase in the size of rhizodermal cells and divisions of exodermal and cortex cells were observed. The presented data extend upon the knowledge on the chemical composition of the cell wall of barley root cells under stress conditions. The response of cells to Al can be expressed by the specific distribution of pectins in the cell wall and, thus, enables the knowledge on Al toxicity to be extended by explaining the mechanism by which Al inhibits root elongation.

Enhanced waterlogging tolerance in barley by manipulation of expression of the N-end rule pathway E3 ligase PROTEOLYSIS6.

Increased tolerance of crops to low oxygen (hypoxia) during flooding is a key target for food security. In Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh., the N-end rule pathway of targeted proteolysis controls plant responses to hypoxia by regulating the stability of group VII ethylene response factor (ERFVII) transcription factors, controlled by the oxidation status of amino terminal (Nt)-cysteine (Cys). Here, we show that the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) ERFVII BERF1 is a substrate of the N-end rule pathway in vitro. Furthermore, we show that Nt-Cys acts as a sensor for hypoxia in vivo, as the stability of the oxygen-sensor reporter protein MCGGAIL-GUS increased in waterlogged transgenic plants. Transgenic RNAi barley plants, with reduced expression of the N-end rule pathway N-recognin E3 ligase PROTEOLYSIS6 (HvPRT6), showed increased expression of hypoxia-associated genes and altered seed germination phenotypes. In addition, in response to waterlogging, transgenic plants showed sustained biomass, enhanced yield, retention of chlorophyll, and enhanced induction of hypoxia-related genes. HvPRT6 RNAi plants also showed reduced chlorophyll degradation in response to continued darkness, often associated with waterlogged conditions. Barley Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) lines, containing mutant alleles of HvPRT6, also showed increased expression of hypoxia-related genes and phenotypes similar to RNAi lines. We conclude that the N-end rule pathway represents an important target for plant breeding to enhance tolerance to waterlogging in barley and other cereals.

Zeocin-induced DNA damage response in barley and its dependence on ATR.

DNA damage response (DDR) is an essential mechanism by which living organisms maintain their genomic stability. In plants, DDR is important also for normal growth and yield. Here, we explored the DDR of a temperate model crop barley (Hordeum vulgare) at the phenotypic, physiological, and transcriptomic levels. By a series of in vitro DNA damage assays using the DNA strand break (DNA-SB) inducing agent zeocin, we showed reduced root growth and expansion of the differentiated zone to the root tip. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of barley wild-type and plants mutated in DDR signaling kinase ATAXIA TELANGIECTASIA MUTATED AND RAD3-RELATED (hvatr.g) revealed zeocin-dependent, ATR-dependent, and zeocin-dependent/ATR-independent transcriptional responses. Transcriptional changes were scored also using the newly developed catalog of 421 barley DDR genes with the phylogenetically-resolved relationships of barley SUPRESSOR OF GAMMA 1 (SOG1) and SOG1-LIKE (SGL) genes. Zeocin caused up-regulation of specific DDR factors and down-regulation of cell cycle and histone genes, mostly in an ATR-independent manner. The ATR dependency was obvious for some factors associated with DDR during DNA replication and for many genes without an obvious connection to DDR. This provided molecular insight into the response to DNA-SB induction in the large and complex barley genome.

Is it the end of TILLING era in plant science?

Since its introduction in 2000, the TILLING strategy has been widely used in plant research to create novel genetic diversity. TILLING is based on chemical or physical mutagenesis followed by the rapid identification of mutations within genes of interest. TILLING mutants may be used for functional analysis of genes and being nontransgenic, they may be directly used in pre-breeding programs. Nevertheless, classical mutagenesis is a random process, giving rise to mutations all over the genome. Therefore TILLING mutants carry background mutations, some of which may affect the phenotype and should be eliminated, which is often time-consuming. Recently, new strategies of targeted genome editing, including CRISPR/Cas9-based methods, have been developed and optimized for many plant species. These methods precisely target only genes of interest and produce very few off-targets. Thus, the question arises: is it the end of TILLING era in plant studies? In this review, we recap the basics of the TILLING strategy, summarize the current status of plant TILLING research and present recent TILLING achievements. Based on these reports, we conclude that TILLING still plays an important role in plant research as a valuable tool for generating genetic variation for genomics and breeding projects.

Aluminum or Low pH - Which Is the Bigger Enemy of Barley? Transcriptome Analysis of Barley Root Meristem Under Al and Low pH Stress.

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is considered to be the most harmful abiotic stress in acidic soils that today comprise more than 50% of the world's arable lands. Barley belongs to a group of crops that are most sensitive to Al in low pH soils. We present the RNA-seq analysis of root meristems of barley seedlings grown in hydroponics at optimal pH (6.0), low pH (4.0), and low pH with Al (10 µM of bioavailable Al3+ ions). Two independent experiments were conducted: with short-term (24 h) and long-term (7 days) Al treatment. In the short-term experiment, more genes were differentially expressed (DEGs) between root meristems grown at pH = 6.0 and pH = 4.0, than between those grown at pH = 4.0 with and without Al treatment. The genes upregulated by low pH were associated mainly with response to oxidative stress, cell wall organization, and iron ion binding. Among genes upregulated by Al, overrepresented were those related to response to stress condition and calcium ion binding. In the long-term experiment, the number of DEGs between hydroponics at pH = 4.0 and 6.0 were lower than in the short-term experiment, which suggests that plants partially adapted to the low pH. Interestingly, 7 days Al treatment caused massive changes in the transcriptome profile. Over 4,000 genes were upregulated and almost 2,000 genes were downregulated by long-term Al stress. These DEGs were related to stress response, cell wall development and metal ion transport. Based on our results we can assume that both, Al3+ ions and low pH are harmful to barley plants. Additionally, we phenotyped the root system of barley seedlings grown in the same hydroponic conditions for 7 days at pH = 6.0, pH = 4.0, and pH = 4.0 with Al. The results correspond to transcriptomic data and show that low pH itself is a stress factor that causes a significant reduction of root growth and the addition of aluminum further increases this reduction. It should be noted that in acidic arable lands, plants are exposed simultaneously to both of these stresses. The presented transcriptome analysis may help to find potential targets for breeding barley plants that are more tolerant to such conditions.

TILLING in Barley.

TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes), a popular reverse genetics approach in barley research, combines plant mutagenesis with efficient mutation detection for studying biological function of a specific gene. The high mutation frequency within a TILLING population principally enables the identification of induced variations in (almost) all genes of a given species (more precisely a given genotype of a species) of interest, which can be tested for their functional impact on morphological and/or physiological characteristics of the plant. Several TILLING populations induced by chemical mutagenesis were established for barley (Talame et al., Plant Biotechnol J 6:477-485, 2008; Gottwald et al., BMC Res Notes 2:258, 2009; Caldwell et al. Plant J 40:143-150, 2004) and showed the possibility for adapting protocols to develop further populations. This chapter describes a chemical mutagenesis protocol for barley seeds and two independent procedures for efficient single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection in a large number of mutagenized plants either by slab-gel- or capillary gel-based electrophoreses on the LI-COR 4300 DNA Analyzer and the AdvanCE FS96 instruments, respectively.

The dmc1 Mutant Allows an Insight Into the DNA Double-Strand Break Repair During Meiosis in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).

Meiosis is a process of essential importance for sexual reproduction, as it leads to production of gametes. The recombination event (crossing-over) generates genetic variation by introducing new combination of alleles. The first step of crossing-over is introduction of a targeted double-strand break (DSB) in DNA. DMC1 (Disrupted Meiotic cDNA1) is a recombinase that is specific only for cells undergoing meiosis and takes part in repair of such DSBs by searching and invading homologous sequences that are subsequently used as a template for the repair process. Although role of the DMC1 gene has been validated in Arabidopsis thaliana, a functional analysis of its homolog in barley, a crop species of significant importance in agriculture, has never been performed. Here, we describe the identification of barley mutants carrying substitutions in the HvDMC1 gene. We performed mutational screening using TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) strategy and the barley TILLING population, HorTILLUS, developed after double-treatment of spring barley cultivar 'Sebastian' with sodium azide and N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. One of the identified alleles, dmc1.c, was found independently in two different M2 plants. The G2571A mutation identified in this allele leads to a substitution of the highly conserved amino acid (arginine-183 to lysine) in the DMC1 protein sequence. Two mutant lines carrying the same dmc1.c allele show similar disturbances during meiosis. The chromosomal aberrations included anaphase bridges and chromosome fragments in anaphase/telophase I and anaphase/telophase II, as well as micronuclei in tetrads. Moreover, atypical tetrads containing three or five cells were observed. A highly increased frequency of all chromosome aberrations during meiosis have been observed in the dmc1.c mutants compared to parental variety. The results indicated that DMC1 is required for the DSB repair, crossing-over and proper chromosome disjunction during meiosis in barley.

ATR, a DNA Damage Signaling Kinase, Is Involved in Aluminum Response in Barley.

Ataxia Telangiectasia and Rad-3-related protein (ATR) is a DNA damage signaling kinase required for the monitoring of DNA integrity. Together with ATM and SOG1, it is a key player in the transcriptional regulation of DNA damage response (DDR) genes in plants. In this study, we describe the role of ATR in the DDR pathway in barley and the function of the HvATR gene in response to DNA damages induced by aluminum toxicity. Aluminum is the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust. It becomes highly phytotoxic in acidic soils, which comprise more than 50% of arable lands worldwide. At low pH, Al is known to be a genotoxic agent causing DNA damage and cell cycle arrest. We present barley mutants, hvatr.g and hvatr.i, developed by TILLING strategy. The hvatr.g mutant carries a G6054A missense mutation in the ATR gene, leading to the substitution of a highly conserved amino acid in the protein (G1015S). The hvatr.g mutant showed the impaired DDR pathway. It accumulated DNA damages in the nuclei of root meristem cells when grown in control conditions. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) analysis revealed that 60% of mutant nuclei possessed DNA nicks and breaks, whereas in the wild type only 2% of the nuclei were TUNEL-positive. The high frequency of DNA damages did not lead to the inhibition of the cell cycle progression, but the mutant showed an increased number of cells in the G2/M phase. In response to treatments with different Al doses, hvatr.g showed a high level of tolerance. The retention of root growth, which is the most evident symptom of Al toxicity, was not observed in the mutant, as it was in its parent variety. Furthermore, Al treatment increased the level of DNA damages, but did not affect the mitotic activity and the cell cycle profile in the hvatr.g mutant. A similar phenotype was observed for the hvatr.i mutant, carrying another missense mutation leading to G903E substitution in the HvATR protein. Our results demonstrate that the impaired mechanism of DNA damage response may lead to aluminum tolerance. They shed a new light on the role of the ATR-dependent DDR pathway in an agronomically important species.

Fragmentation of Pooled PCR Products for Highly Multiplexed TILLING.

Improvements to massively parallel sequencing have allowed the routine recovery of natural and induced sequence variants. A broad range of biological disciplines have benefited from this, ranging from plant breeding to cancer research. The need for high sequence coverage to accurately recover single nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions limits the applicability of whole genome approaches. This is especially true in organisms with a large genome size or for applications requiring the screening of thousands of individuals, such as the reverse-genetic technique known as TILLING. Using PCR to target and sequence chosen genomic regions provides an attractive alternative as the vast reduction in interrogated bases means that sample size can be dramatically increased through amplicon multiplexing and multi-dimensional sample pooling while maintaining suitable coverage for recovery of small mutations. Direct sequencing of PCR products is limited, however, due to limitations in read lengths of many next generation sequencers. In the present study we show the optimization and use of ultrasonication for the simultaneous fragmentation of multiplexed PCR amplicons for TILLING highly pooled samples. Sequencing performance was evaluated in a total of 32 pooled PCR products produced from 4096 chemically mutagenized Hordeum vulgare DNAs pooled in three dimensions. Evaluation of read coverage and base quality across amplicons suggests this approach is suitable for high-throughput TILLING and other applications employing highly pooled complex sampling schemes. Induced mutations previously identified in a traditional TILLING screen were recovered in this dataset further supporting the efficacy of the approach.

HorTILLUS-A Rich and Renewable Source of Induced Mutations for Forward/Reverse Genetics and Pre-breeding Programs in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.).

TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) is a strategy used for functional analysis of genes that combines the classical mutagenesis and a rapid, high-throughput identification of mutations within a gene of interest. TILLING has been initially developed as a discovery platform for functional genomics, but soon it has become a valuable tool in development of desired alleles for crop breeding, alternative to transgenic approach. Here we present the HorTILLUS ( Hordeum-TILLING-University of Silesia) population created for spring barley cultivar "Sebastian" after double-treatment of seeds with two chemical mutagens: sodium azide (NaN3) and N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU). The population comprises more than 9,600 M2 plants from which DNA was isolated, seeds harvested, vacuum-packed, and deposited in seed bank. M3 progeny of 3,481 M2 individuals was grown in the field and phenotyped. The screening for mutations was performed for 32 genes related to different aspects of plant growth and development. For each gene fragment, 3,072-6,912 M2 plants were used for mutation identification using LI-COR sequencer. In total, 382 mutations were found in 182.2 Mb screened. The average mutation density in the HorTILLUS, estimated as 1 mutation per 477 kb, is among the highest mutation densities reported for barley. The majority of mutations were G/C to A/T transitions, however about 8% transversions were also detected. Sixty-one percent of mutations found in coding regions were missense, 37.5% silent and 1.1% nonsense. In each gene, the missense mutations with a potential effect on protein function were identified. The HorTILLUS platform is the largest of the TILLING populations reported for barley and best characterized. The population proved to be a useful tool, both in functional genomic studies and in forward selection of barley mutants with required phenotypic changes. We are constantly renewing the HorTILLUS population, which makes it a permanent source of new mutations. We offer the usage of this valuable resource to the interested barley researchers on cooperative basis.