Synthetic hormone-responsive transcription factors can monitor and reprogram plant development

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Abstract

Abstract Developmental programs continuously sculpt plant morphology to meet environmental challenges, and these same programs have been manipulated to increase agricultural productivity 1,2 . Small molecule phytohormones act as signals within these programs creating chemical circuitry 3 that, in many cases, has been represented in mathematical models 4,5 . To date, model validation and forward engineering of plant morphology has been largely restricted to adding or subtracting genes, as more nuanced tools to modulate key control parameters identified by such models in vivo are severely limited 6,7 . Here, we use Arabidopsis thaliana to validate a novel set of synthetic and modular h ormone a ctivated C as9-based r epressors (HACRs) that respond to three phytohormones: auxin, gibberellins and jasmonates. We demonstrate that HACRs can regulate genes in response to both exogenous hormone treatments, as well as in response to local differences in endogenous hormone levels associated with developmental events. We further show that HACRs can be used to reprogram the agriculturally relevant traits of shoot branching and phyllotaxy by tuning canalization strength, a critical control parameter predicted by mathematical models. By deploying a HACR to re-parameterize the threshold for induction of the auxin transporter PIN-FORMED1 (PIN1), we observed a decrease in shoot branching and phyllotactic noise as predicted by existing models 4,5 . The approach described here provides a framework for improved mapping of developmental circuitry, as well as a means to better leverage model predictions to engineer development.

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