Aizezi Yalikunjiang, Xie Yinpeng, Guo Hongwei, Jiang Kai
Institute of Plant and Food Science, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 518055, China.
Key Laboratory of Molecular Design for Plant Cell Factory of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Life (Basel). 2022 Aug 22;12(8):1285. doi: 10.3390/life12081285.
The apical hook is formed by dicot seedlings to protect the tender shoot apical meristem during soil emergence. Regulated by many phytohormones, the apical hook has been taken as a model to study the crosstalk between individual signaling pathways. Over recent decades, the roles of different phytohormones and environmental signals in apical hook development have been illustrated. However, key regulators downstream of canonical hormone signaling have rarely been identified via classical genetics screening, possibly due to genetic redundancy and/or lethal mutation. Chemical genetics that utilize small molecules to perturb and elucidate biological processes could provide a complementary strategy to overcome the limitations in classical genetics. In this review, we summarize current progress in hormonal regulation of the apical hook, and previously reported chemical tools that could assist the understanding of this complex developmental process. We also provide insight into novel strategies for chemical screening and target identification, which could possibly lead to discoveries of new regulatory components in apical hook development, or unidentified signaling crosstalk that is overlooked by classical genetics screening.
双子叶植物幼苗形成顶端弯钩以在出土过程中保护幼嫩的茎尖分生组织。顶端弯钩受多种植物激素调控，已成为研究单个信号通路间相互作用的模型。近几十年来，不同植物激素和环境信号在顶端弯钩发育中的作用已得到阐明。然而，经典激素信号下游的关键调控因子很少通过经典遗传学筛选被鉴定出来，这可能是由于基因冗余和/或致死突变。利用小分子干扰和阐明生物学过程的化学遗传学可以提供一种互补策略，以克服经典遗传学的局限性。在本综述中，我们总结了顶端弯钩激素调控的当前进展，以及先前报道的有助于理解这一复杂发育过程的化学工具。我们还深入探讨了化学筛选和靶点鉴定的新策略，这可能会发现顶端弯钩发育中的新调控成分，或经典遗传学筛选忽略的未识别信号相互作用。
