Endoplasmic reticulum stress controls PIN-LIKES abundance and thereby growth adaptation

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218865120
• Publication Date: 2023-07-24T19:08:10Z
• Authors: Sascha Waidmann; Chloé Béziat; Jonathan Ferreira...; Elena Feraru; Mugurel I. Feraru; Lin Sun; Seinab Noura; Yohann Boutté; Jürgen Kleine-Vehn
• Keywords: 580; 570; Plant Growth Regulators; Indoleacetic Acids; Arabidopsis Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Arabidopsis; Membrane Transport Proteins; Biological Transport; Biological Sciences; Plants; Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Extreme environmental conditions eventually limit plant growth [J. R. Dinneny, Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 35 , 1–19 (2019), N. Gigli-Bisceglia, C. Testerink, Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 64 , 102120 (2021)]. Here, we reveal a mechanism that enables multiple external cues to get integrated into auxin-dependent growth programs in Arabidopsis thaliana . Our forward genetics approach on dark-grown hypocotyls uncovered that an imbalance in membrane lipids enhances the protein abundance of PIN-LIKES (PILS) [E. Barbez et al. , Nature 485 , 119 (2012)] auxin transport facilitators at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which thereby limits nuclear auxin signaling and growth rates. We show that this subcellular response relates to ER stress signaling, which directly impacts PILS protein turnover in a tissue-dependent manner. This mechanism allows PILS proteins to integrate environmental input with phytohormone auxin signaling, contributing to stress-induced growth adaptation in plants.