Boron deficiency results in early repression of a cytokinin receptor gene and abnormal cell differentiation in the apical root meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana.

The development of Arabidopsis thaliana was dramatically altered within few hours following boron (B) deprivation. This effect was particularly evident in the apical root meristem. The essentiality of boron in plants has been clearly linked to its structural role in the cell wall, however the diversity and rapidity alterations of plant organogenesis when the micronutrient is absent suggest that B deficiency could also affect gene regulation during plant development. Therefore, the effect of B deficiency on cell elongation, apical root meristem cell division, and early differentiation of root tissues was investigated in A. thaliana seedlings. Dark-growth experiments indicated that hypocotyl elongation was inhibited 2 days after removing B, but apical root growth ceased almost immediately following B deprivation. Detection of cycline B1 by GUS staining of a promoter-reporter construct revealed that low B led to a reduced zone of cell division. The expression of CRE1/WOL/AHK4, encoding an integral membrane protein with histidine kinase domain that mediates cytokinin signaling and root xylem differentiation, was inhibited under B deficiency resulting in arrested xylem development at the protoxylem stage. Because the transition from cell division to cell differentiation in apical root meristems is controlled by cytokinins, this result support the hypothesis that signaling mechanisms during cell differentiation and organogenesis are highly sensitive to B deficiency, and together with previous reports that link the micronutrient with auxin or ethylene control of root architecture, suggests that B could play a role in regulation of hormone mediated early plant development signaling.