Arabidopsis: two-hundredths anniversary of its name and the possibility of a hidden universal regulatory signal
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COMMENTARY
Arabidopsis: two-hundredths anniversary of its name and the possibility of a hidden universal regulatory signal Rajnish Khanna1,2
•
Ulrich Kutschera1,2
Received: 29 July 2020 / Accepted: 10 September 2020 Ó Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 2020
Abstract In 1821, the Swiss botanist A. P. de Candolle (1788–1841) introduced the term ‘‘Arabidopsis’’ to denote a group of dicotyledonous plants (family Brassicaceae). Here, we recount the history of Arabidopsis research from 1588 to 2020, with a focus on light and plant development. We document that plant stem cell research, with commercial applications, is essentially based on Arabidopsis-thaliana. Then, we discuss scoto- and photomorphogenesis in this model plant and introduce the light-auxin-connection. Based on these insights, we argue that an as yet unknown ‘‘hidden signal’’ must be involved in the phenomenon of scotomorphogenesis, also known under the name etiolation. We conclude that Arabidopsis will serve in the foreseeable future as the model organism of choice with respect to the causal analysis of the actions of light and phytohormones during plant development. Keywords Arabidopsis Auxin Evolution Light Plant development Abbreviations SPHN Socie´te´ de Physique et d’Histroire Naturelle IAPT International Association for Plant Taxonomy BR Brassinosteroids Pcz Propiconazole PAR Photosynthetically Active Radiation IAA Indole-3-acetic acid
Introduction Seventy years ago, the Socie´te´ de Physique et d’Histroire Naturelle (SPHN), also known as ‘‘International Association for Plant Taxonomy’’ (IAPT), was founded in Stockholm (Sweden). Best known for the publication of the journal Taxon, a leading periodical devoted to systematics, Dedicated to the memory of Winslow R. Briggs (1928–2019). & Rajnish Khanna [email protected] 1
i-Cultiver, Inc., 404 Clipper Cove Way, San Francisco, CA 94130, USA
2
Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama St., Stanford, CA 94305, USA
phylogeny and taxonomy of fungi, algae and plants, the SPHN regularly announces the award of the ‘‘AugustinPyramus de Candolle Prize’’ (Covan and Staflen 1982). Who was A. P. de Candolle (Fig. 1)? Born in the former Republic of Geneva (now Switzerland) on February 4, 1788, this gifted scientist became the founder of a novel system of plant classification that provided an empirical background for an evolutionary history of the vegetation of the world. Accordingly, the ‘‘A. P. de Candolle Prize’’ recognizes the author of the best scientific study of a taxonomic group of fungi, algae or plants. In addition to being an outstanding botanist, A. P. de Candolle was one of the first biologists to introduce the idea of ‘‘Nature’s war’’, which inspired Charles Darwin (1809–1882) to develop his principle of descent with modification by means of natural selection (Kutschera 2003). Moreover, de Candolle discovered that the leaf movements of plants follow, in constant light, an approximately 24-h-cycle so that there may exist an internal ‘‘biolog
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