The work was carried out by Drs. Hao Chen and Zhuofu Li under the supervision of Prof. Xiong in the Chemical and Life Sciences and Engineering Division. The team used Arabidopsis, a mustard plant, the model of choice in plant studies in the same way as E. Coli is in microbiology studies and is widely used for genetic studies. They discovered that drought stress increases the destruction of auxin receptor mRNAs by a small piece of RNA. Auxin receptors are responsible for perceiving the growth hormone auxin to stimulate lateral root development. The study thus links stress tolerance with growth hormone signaling, which consequently limits lateral root development.
This interesting and novel regulatory mechanism is highly relevant for understanding the environmental control of plant development. It will also help scientists to design plants with a better root architecture to deal with drought stress.