A novel plant-specific family gene, ROOT PRIMORDIUM DEFECTIVE 1, is required for the maintenance of active cell proliferation.

Hypocotyl segments of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) produce adventitious roots in response to exogenously supplied auxin. root primordium defective 1 (rpd1) is a temperature-sensitive mutant isolated on the basis of impairment in this phenomenon. This study describes further phenotypic analysis of the rpd1 mutant and isolation of the RPD1 gene. When adventitious root formation was induced from the rpd1 explants at the restrictive temperature, cell proliferation leading to root promordia formation was initiated at the same time as in wild-type explants. However, development of the root primordia was arrested thereafter in the mutant. Temperature-shift experiments indicated that RPD1 exerts its function before any visible sign of root primordium formation. The expression patterns of the auxin-responsive gene DR5:beta-glucuronidase and the cytodifferentiation marker gene SCARECROW suggest that the rpd1 mutation interferes with neither axis formation nor cellular patterning at the initial stage of root primordium development. Taken together with the effect of the rpd1 mutation on callus cell proliferation, these data imply a role for RPD1 in prearranging the maintenance of the active cell proliferation during root primordium development. Positional cloning of the RPD1 gene revealed that it encodes a member of a novel protein family specific to the plant kingdom. Disruption of the RPD1 gene by a T-DNA insertion caused embryogenesis arrest at the globular to transition stages. This phenotype is consistent with the hypothesized function of RPD1 in the maintenance of active cell proliferation.