strigolactone and karrikin signaling pathways elicit ... · 134 . signaling, sls interact with the...

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1 RESEARCH ARTICLE 1 2 Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit Ubiquitination and 3 Proteolysis of SMXL2 to Regulate Hypocotyl Elongation in Arabidopsis thaliana 4 5 Lei Wang a,b,1 , Qian Xu b,c,1 , Hong Yu b , Haiyan Ma b , Xiaoqiang Li d , Jun Yang d , 6 Jinfang Chu b,c , Qi Xie b,c , Yonghong Wang b,c,e , Steven M. Smith b,f , Jiayang Li b,c , 7 Guosheng Xiong a,g,2 , and Bing Wang b,2 8 a Agricultural Genome Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 9 518120, China 10 b State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, and National Center for Plant Gene Research 11 (Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, The Innovative Academy of 12 Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 13 c University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China 14 d CAS Key Laboratory of Energy Regulation, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, 15 Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China 16 e College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong 271018, 17 China 18 f School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7001, Australia 19 g Plant Phenomics Research Center, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, 20 China 21 1 These authors contributed equally to this work. 22 2 Address correspondence to [email protected] or [email protected] 23 24 Short title: Both SLs and KARs trigger SMXL2 degradation 25 26 One-sentence summary: Strigolactone and karrikin signaling pathways trigger 27 polyubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2 to regulate hypocotyl elongation and gene 28 expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. 29 30 The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in 31 this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors 32 (www.plantcell.org) is: Bing Wang ([email protected]). 33 34 ABSTRACT 35 Strigolactones (SLs) and karrikins (KARs) are related butenolide signaling molecules that 36 control plant development. In Arabidopsis thaliana they are recognized separately by two 37 closely related receptors but employ the same F-box protein MORE AXILLARY 38 GROWTH2 (MAX2) for signal transduction, targeting different members of the 39 SMAX1-LIKE (SMXL) family of transcriptional repressors for degradation. Both signals 40 Plant Cell Advance Publication. Published on April 30, 2020, doi:10.1105/tpc.20.00140 ©2020 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved

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Page 1: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

1

RESEARCH ARTICLE 1

2

Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit Ubiquitination and 3

Proteolysis of SMXL2 to Regulate Hypocotyl Elongation in Arabidopsis thaliana 4

5

Lei Wanga,b,1

, Qian Xub,c,1

, Hong Yub, Haiyan Ma

b, Xiaoqiang Li

d, Jun Yang

d, 6

Jinfang Chub,c

, Qi Xieb,c

, Yonghong Wangb,c,e

, Steven M. Smithb,f

, Jiayang Lib,c

, 7

Guosheng Xionga,g,2

, and Bing Wangb,2

8

a Agricultural Genome Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 9

518120, China 10 b State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, and National Center for Plant Gene Research 11

(Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, The Innovative Academy of 12

Seed Design, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 13 c University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China 14

d CAS Key Laboratory of Energy Regulation, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, 15

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China 16 e College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong 271018, 17

China 18 f School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7001, Australia 19

g Plant Phenomics Research Center, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, 20

China 21 1These authors contributed equally to this work. 22

2Address correspondence to [email protected] or [email protected] 23

24

Short title: Both SLs and KARs trigger SMXL2 degradation 25

26

One-sentence summary: Strigolactone and karrikin signaling pathways trigger 27

polyubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2 to regulate hypocotyl elongation and gene 28

expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. 29

30

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in 31

this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors 32

(www.plantcell.org) is: Bing Wang ([email protected]). 33

34

ABSTRACT 35

Strigolactones (SLs) and karrikins (KARs) are related butenolide signaling molecules that 36

control plant development. In Arabidopsis thaliana they are recognized separately by two 37

closely related receptors but employ the same F-box protein MORE AXILLARY 38

GROWTH2 (MAX2) for signal transduction, targeting different members of the 39

SMAX1-LIKE (SMXL) family of transcriptional repressors for degradation. Both signals 40

Plant Cell Advance Publication. Published on April 30, 2020, doi:10.1105/tpc.20.00140

©2020 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved

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2

inhibit hypocotyl elongation in seedlings, raising the question of whether signaling is 41

convergent or parallel. Here, we show that synthetic SL analog GR244DO

enhanced the 42

interaction between the SL receptor DWARF14 (D14) and SMXL2, while the KAR 43

surrogate GR24ent-5DS

induced association of the KAR receptor KARRIKIN 44

INSENSITIVE2 (KAI2) with SMAX1 and SMXL2. Both signals trigger 45

polyubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2, with GR244DO

dependent on D14 and 46

GR24ent-5DS

dependent mainly on KAI2. SMXL2 is critical for hypocotyl responses to 47

GR244DO

, and functions redundantly with SMAX1 in hypocotyl response to GR24ent-5DS

. 48

Furthermore, GR244DO

induced response of D14-LIKE2 (DLK2) and KAR-UP F-BOX1 49

(KUF1) through SMXL2, whereas GR24ent-5DS

induced expression of these genes via both 50

SMAX1 and SMXL2. These findings demonstrate that both SLs and KARs could trigger 51

polyubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2, thus uncovering an unexpected but 52

important convergent pathway in SL- and KAR-regulated gene expression and hypocotyl 53

elongation. 54

55

INTRODUCTION 56

Strigolactones (SLs) are a large diverse group of signaling compounds derived from the 57

carotenoid biosynthetic pathway and possess a characteristic butenolide ring that is 58

essential for activity. They function in many aspects of plant development, such as shoot 59

branching, internode elongation, leaf elongation and senescence, growth of primary and 60

lateral roots, anthocyanin accumulation, shoot gravitropism, and stem secondary 61

thickening (Foo et al., 2001; Stirnberg et al., 2002; Sorefan et al., 2003; Snowden et al., 62

2005; Arite et al., 2007; Simons et al., 2007; Gomez-Roldan et al., 2008; Umehara et al., 63

2008; Drummond et al., 2009; Lin et al., 2009; Agusti et al., 2011; Sang et al., 2014). 64

Mutations that block SL biosynthesis and signaling are characterized by the outgrowth of 65

axillary buds to form lateral shoots in dicotyledonous plants or tillers in grasses 66

(Al-Babili and Bouwmeester, 2015; Wang et al., 2017a; Waters et al., 2017). 67

SLs also play important roles in adaptive growth under diverse environmental 68

conditions (Saeed et al., 2017; Mostofa et al., 2018). Phosphate or water deficiency 69

significantly induces SL biosynthesis, and the accumulated SLs further mediate 70

developmental changes to reduce consumption and enhance uptake of phosphate and 71

water (Kohlen et al., 2011; Haider et al., 2018). Besides the function as an endogenous 72

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plant hormone, SLs secreted into the rhizosphere promote symbiotic relationships with 73

arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to facilitate the absorption of water and nutrients 74

(Akiyama et al., 2005). In addition, such SL rhizosphere signals are exploited by parasitic 75

weeds to stimulate seed germination leading to colonization in the roots of host plants, 76

causing devastating losses to crop production (Conn et al., 2015; Toh et al., 2015; 77

Tsuchiya et al., 2015). Due to the important roles of SLs in key agronomic traits related 78

to crop yield and mechanized farming, it is important to understand the molecular 79

mechanism of SL action in plants. 80

Karrikins (KARs) are present in burned plant materials and stimulate germination of 81

dormant seeds following wildfires, facilitating seedlings establishment under favorable 82

conditions (Nelson et al., 2012). They are derived from the pyrolysis of carbohydrates, 83

and like SLs, contain a butenolide ring that is essential for activity. KARs can also 84

promote seed germination of many plant species that are not considered fire followers, 85

including weedy ephemerals such as Arabidopsis thaliana, and commercial species such 86

as Solanum lycopersicum (tomato), Zea mays (maize), Oryza sativa (rice), and Lactuca 87

sativa (lettuce) (Nelson et al., 2012; Morffy et al., 2016). Besides germination, KARs 88

influence seedling photomorphogenesis which is thought to provide an advantage to 89

seedlings in the post-fire environment (Nelson et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2010). Recently, 90

it has been shown that exogenously applied KARs promote Arabidopsis seed germination 91

under permissive conditions but inhibit it under conditions of mild abiotic stresses, 92

suggesting a further means by which seedling establishment is safeguarded (Wang et al., 93

2018a). 94

Studies of KAR-insensitive mutants (see below) reveal pleiotropic developmental 95

abnormalities that include impaired seedling photomorphogenesis (Nelson et al., 2012; 96

Waters et al., 2012), modified leaf shape (Waters et al., 2012), impaired leaf cuticle 97

development (Li et al., 2017), abnormal root skewing and density of root hairs in 98

Arabidopsis (Swarbreck et al., 2019; Villaécija-Aguilar et al. 2019) and inability to 99

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establish symbiosis with AMF in rice (Gutjahr et al., 2015). The defective leaf cuticle 100

results in reduced drought tolerance, indicating a possible role of KAR signaling in 101

response to water deficit (Li et al., 2017). 102

The first SLs identified are known as canonical SLs and have a tricyclic lactone, 103

comprising A, B and C rings, linked through an enol-ether bridge to a butenolide (D ring). 104

More recently non-canonical SLs have been identified that lack B and C rings 105

(Yoneyama et al., 2018). It is generally not known which SLs are responsible for each 106

biological activity, but canonical SLs are routinely used in research, either as natural 107

forms such as 5-deoxystrigol (5DS) and 4-deoxyorobanchol (4DO) or isomers of the 108

synthetic analog GR24 (Flematti et al., 2016; Yoneyama et al., 2018). 109

KARs apparently mimic an endogenous plant signaling compound, the identity of 110

which is still unknown, but structure-function assays show that a butenolide moiety is 111

essential for KAR activity (Nelson et al., 2012; Morffy et al., 2016). Early reports that 112

GR24 induced some KAR-like responses in seeds and seedlings suggested that KARs 113

could simply be SL analogues, but KARs do not stimulate germination of parasitic weeds 114

nor affect shoot branching (Nelson et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2012). Subsequent analysis 115

recognized that commonly used preparations of GR24 comprise a racemic mixture of two 116

enantiomers with the stereochemical configurations of 5DS and its enantiomer, ent-5DS, 117

which are conveniently referred to as GR245DS

and GR24ent-5DS

. Surprisingly, while 118

GR245DS

was found to behave as a SL, GR24ent-5DS

was found to behave as a KAR 119

(Scaffidi et al., 2014). A second pair of enantiomers of GR24 is also produced during 120

chemical synthesis, and these have the stereochemical configuration of 4DO and ent-4DO. 121

These two stereoisomers are referred to as GR244DO

and GR24ent-4DO

and were similarly 122

found to act as SLs and KARs, respectively (Scaffidi et al., 2014). Furthermore, while 123

5DS and 4DO are natural SLs, their synthetic enantiomers ent-5DS and ent-4DO behave 124

as KARs. The defining feature is that analogs active as SLs have a 2'R-configured 125

butenolide D-ring while all analogs with KAR activity have a 2'S configuration (Scaffidi 126

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5

et al., 2014; Flematti et al., 2016). 127

Genetic studies in Arabidopsis, rice, petunia, and pea led to the discoveries of SL 128

and KAR receptors (Waters et al., 2017). The SL and KAR receptor proteins are 129

paralogous α/β-fold hydrolases known respectively as DWARF14 (D14) in rice and 130

Arabidopsis and KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 (KAI2) or HYPOSENSITIVE TO LIGHT 131

(HTL) in Arabidopsis. Signaling by SLs and KARs both require the F-box protein MORE 132

AXILLARY GROWTH2 (MAX2) in Arabidopsis or DWARF3 (D3) in rice. In SL 133

signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic 134

attack by the active-site serine residue, resulting in elimination of the ABC moiety and 135

covalent attachment of a 4-carbon derivative of the D-ring to the active site serine and 136

histidine residues of D14 (Hamiaux et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2013a; Yao et al., 2016). 137

This modification has been proposed to induce association of D14 with D3/MAX2 and 138

with repressor proteins from the rice DWARF53 (D53) or Arabidopsis SUPPRESSOR 139

OF MAX2-LIKE (SMXL) family which are subsequently ubiquitinated and degraded (de 140

Saint Germain et al., 2016; Yao et al., 2016; Yao et al., 2018b). In an alternative model, 141

SL binding to D14 triggers its association with MAX2 and SMXL proteins, resulting in 142

ubiquitination and proteolysis of the SMXL proteins, after which D14 destroys the SL by 143

hydrolysis (Seto et al., 2019). The plasticity in conformational states of D3 also plays an 144

important role in the hydrolytic activity of D14, formation of the D14-D3-D53 complex 145

and thus SL signaling (Shabek et al., 2018). 146

In Arabidopsis SMXL6, SMXL7 and SMXL8 are orthologs of D53 in rice, which 147

are repressors of axillary bud outgrowth and tiller growth, respectively. The 148

ubiquitination and degradation of SMXL6, SMXL7, SMXL8 or D53 through the 26S 149

proteasome relieves transcriptional repression of target genes controlling axillary bud 150

growth (Jiang et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2013; Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015). 151

In KAR signaling, KAI2 (HTL) is expected to perceive exogenous KARs or the unknown 152

endogenous KAI2 Ligand (‘KL’) by means of a similar mechanism to SLs (Waters et al., 153

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2012; Guo et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2016). However, whether KARs promote formation of 154

the KAI2-MAX2-SMXL complex and further trigger ubiquitination and degradation of 155

SMXL proteins is still an open question. This has greatly limited the understanding of 156

KAR signaling in plants. 157

In Arabidopsis, there are eight genes in the SMXL family, which display distinct 158

expression patterns and functions. In particular, SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8 function 159

as key transcriptional repressors that regulate shoot branching and leaf development 160

(Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015); SUPPRESSOR OF MAX2 1 (SMAX1) 161

regulates seed germination and hypocotyl elongation through KAR signaling (Stanga et 162

al., 2013; Soundappan et al., 2015); SMXL3, SMXL4, and SMXL5 act as 163

cell-autonomous regulators of phloem formation independent of SL or KAR signaling 164

(Wallner et al., 2017). SMXL2, a close paralog of SMAX1 in Arabidopsis, mediates KAR 165

signaling and controls hypocotyl growth redundantly with SMAX1. However, SMXL2 166

does not apparently influence seed germination or leaf development (Stanga et al., 2016). 167

Furthermore, smxl2 mutant displays elongated root hairs, which is not observed in smax1 168

mutants (Villaécija-Aguilar et al. 2019). These results indicate a clear functional 169

difference between SMXL2 and SMAX1. Since exogenous SLs can also influence 170

seedling photomorphogenesis, it raises the question of whether SMXL2 might also be 171

involved in SL signaling. 172

Hypocotyl elongation of young seedlings is a key skotomorphogenic response that 173

enables seedlings to push through the soil to receive light. Upon exposure to light, 174

photomorphogenic responses are enacted including repression of hypocotyl elongation. 175

Hypocotyl elongation is controlled by numerous endogenous and environmental signals 176

(Shi et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2018b). The ratio of red to far red light, blue light, UV-B, 177

temperature, photoperiod, circadian clock, and gibberellins all regulate hypocotyl 178

elongation mainly through signaling pathways integrated by the PHYTOCHROME 179

INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF) family transcription factors (Li et al., 2016a; Zhu and 180

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Lin, 2016). Interestingly, KARs and all stereoisomers of GR24 inhibit hypocotyl 181

elongation of Arabidopsis seedlings under continuous red light, and these responses are 182

abolished in the max2 mutant (Nelson et al., 2011; Scaffidi et al., 2014). There is 183

crosstalk between KAR signaling and ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5)-dependent 184

photomorphogenesis (Waters and Smith, 2013). Significantly, in low intensity white light 185

the natural SLs 5DS and 4DO inhibited hypocotyl elongation in a D14-dependent manner, 186

while the non-natural enantiomer ent-5DS inhibited hypocotyl elongation through KAI2 187

(Scaffidi et al., 2014), indicating that SLs and KARs regulate hypocotyl elongation 188

separately through both signaling pathways. Genetic analysis further showed that SMAX1 189

and SMXL2 function redundantly in KAR-induced photomorphogenesis, while SMXL6, 190

SMXL7, and SMXL8 do not regulate hypocotyl elongation (Soundappan et al., 2015; 191

Stanga et al., 2016). Thus, the molecular mechanism underlying SL-regulated 192

photomorphogenesis needs further investigation. 193

It is generally considered that SL and KAR signaling are mediated by distinct 194

members of the SMXL family (Stanga et al., 2016). In this study we show that SLs and 195

KARs specifically promote formation of the D14-MAX2-SMXL2 and 196

KAI2-MAX2-SMXL2 complexes, and subsequently trigger polyubiquitination and 197

degradation of SMXL2 in a D14- or KAI2-dependent manner, respectively. These 198

findings demonstrate a common mechanism for D14- and KAI2-mediated signaling in 199

Arabidopsis seedlings and are discussed in terms of the functions and possible 200

evolutionary relationships of these signaling pathways. 201

202

RESULTS 203

Expression of SMXL2 Is Induced by both SL and KAR Signals 204

The transcript levels of SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8 in Arabidopsis and their homolog 205

D53 in rice are upregulated by a racemic mixture of GR24 (rac-GR24) consisting of 206

GR245DS

and GR24ent-5DS

, which behave preferentially as SLs and KARs respectively 207

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(Jiang et al., 2013; Stanga et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2013; Scaffidi et al., 2014; Lantzouni 208

et al., 2017). Therefore, expression analyses based on rac-GR24 are unable to 209

discriminate the transcript responses to SLs and KARs, except by analyses in the d14 and 210

kai2 mutants and by comparison with responses to KAR (Scaffidi et al., 2013; Waters et 211

al., 2017). To investigate the specific gene expression responding to SLs, we used 212

GR244DO

as an active SL analog because our preliminary studies showed it to be more213

active than GR245DS

. For KAR signaling we used either KAR1 or GR24ent-5DS

which has214

been shown to interact with KAI2 and to regulate gene expression, seed germination and 215

seedling development preferentially via KAI2 (Nelson, et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2010; 216

Nelson et al., 2011; Guo et al., 2013; Scaffidi et al., 2014; Waters et al., 2015; Flematti et 217

al., 2016). 218

Phylogenetic analyses indicate that SMXL family members are probably derived 219

from duplication and functional divergence of ancient SMAX1 genes during evolution 220

(Moture et al., 2018). To investigate functions of SMXL family proteins in SL and KAR 221

signaling, we first analyzed the mRNA level of SMXL genes in response to GR244DO

222

treatment in seedlings of wild type, d14-1 and kai2-2 (Supplemental Figure 1A and 223

Figure 1). After GR244DO

treatment for 4h, transcript levels of SMXL6, SMXL7, and224

SMXL8 were upregulated in wild type. Interestingly, SMXL2 expression was also 225

upregulated upon GR244DO

treatment, whereas expression levels of SMAX1, SMXL3,226

SMXL4, and SMXL5 remained unaffected. These inductions were blocked in d14-1 but 227

were largely unaffected in kai2-2, indicating that GR244DO

could induce the expression of 228

SMXL2, SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8 through D14-mediated SL signaling (Figure 1). 229

KAR1 and KAR2 have been employed to detect transcriptional changes in 230

Arabidopsis, and only a few genes including KAR-UP F-BOX1 (KUF1) and D14-LIKE2 231

(DLK2) were up-regulated, but no SMXL family member has been reported to respond, 232

even after treatment for 72 h (Nelson et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2010; Nelson et al., 2011; 233

Waters et al., 2012). However, it was later reported that treatment of seedlings with 1 µM 234

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KAR2 for 4 days induced a slight increase in SMXL2 expression (Stanga et al., 2013). 235

Consistent with these studies, we did not observe a significant response of SMXL family 236

members upon KAR1 treatment for 4 h (Supplemental Figure 1B), which could be 237

explained by the hypothesis that KAR1 and KAR2 are not the active ligands in vivo and 238

require activation (Waters et al., 2015; Yao et al., 2018a). To further investigate the 239

response of SMXL genes to KAR signaling, we employed GR24ent-5DS

(Supplemental 240

Figure 1A) as a KAR surrogate (Waters et al., 2015; Flematti et al., 2016) and observed 241

that GR24ent-5DS

could clearly induce the expression of SMAX1 and SMXL2 after 4 h 242

treatment in a KAI2-dependent manner, but had little effect on the expression of SMXL3, 243

SMXL4, SMXL5, SMXL7, and SMXL8 (Figure 1). GR24ent-5DS

also weakly induced 244

SMXL6 expression in wild type, but this induction was not observed in kai2-2 or d14-1, 245

suggesting that GR24ent-5DS

might regulate SMXL6 expression through both KAI2 and SL 246

signaling. 247

248

SL Treatment Stimulates Interaction of SMXL2 with D14 but KAR Triggers its 249

Association with KAI2 250

To study the role of SMXL2 in SL signaling we investigated the physical association of 251

the SL receptor D14 with SMXL2, SMAX1, SMXL5 and SMXL6. In a 252

co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assay using Arabidopsis protoplasts, hemagglutinin 253

(HA)-tagged D14 associated with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)-tagged SMXL2 and 254

GFP-SMXL6 proteins, and these interactions were significantly enhanced by GR244DO

. 255

However, neither SMAX1 nor SMXL5 could interact with D14, and GR244DO

treatment 256

had no effect (Figure 2A). This result is consistent with stimulation of interaction 257

between D14 and SMXL6 by rac-GR24 (Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015) and 258

indicates that GR244DO

enhances the interaction between D14 and SMXL2 in vivo. We 259

further examined interaction between HA-D14 and GFP-SMXL2 in the absence or 260

presence of KAR1, GR24ent-5DS

, GR245DS

, or GR244DO

, and found that the D14-SMXL2 261

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10

interaction was significantly enhanced by GR244DO

and GR245DS

, but showed little 262

change upon KAR1 or GR24ent-5DS

treatment (Figure 2B). Furthermore, the interaction 263

between HA-D14 and GFP-SMXL2 was enhanced by GR244DO

with dose dependency 264

(Figure 2C). These results collectively demonstrate that SLs could specifically enhance 265

the interaction between D14 and SMXL2 in vivo. 266

Interaction between D14 and MAX2 is triggered by SLs in numerous plant species 267

(Hamiaux et al., 2012; Jiang et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2015; Liang et al., 268

2016). However, biochemical evidence for interaction between KAI2 and MAX2 induced 269

by KARs has been difficult to obtain. In yeast two-hybrid assays, KAR1 promoted a weak 270

interaction between KAI2 (AtHTL) and MAX2 (Toh et al., 2014). Recently however, 271

strong autoactivation in the yeast two hybrid system by KAI2 was reported, but no 272

interaction between KAI2 and MAX2 could be observed (Yao et al., 2018a). To detect the 273

interaction between KAI2 and MAX2 in vivo, we co-expressed HA-KAI2 and 274

GFP-MAX2 in Arabidopsis protoplasts and conducted Co-IP assays. In the absence of 275

GR24ent-5DS

, HA-KAI2 was found to interact with GFP-MAX2 with low efficiency, while 276

addition of GR24ent-5DS

greatly enhanced the association, demonstrating that KAI2 forms 277

a complex with MAX2 in Arabidopsis (Supplemental Figure 2). 278

Although genetic evidence showed that SMAX1 and SMXL2 function downstream of 279

KAI2 and MAX2 in Arabidopsis (Stanga et al., 2013; Soundappan et al., 2015; Stanga et 280

al., 2016), there has been no evidence for physical interaction of SMXL proteins with 281

KAI2. We thus conducted Co-IP assays to test the association of HA-KAI2 with 282

GFP-SMAX1, GFP-SMXL2, GFP-SMXL5 and GFP-SMXL6 (Figure 3A). In the 283

absence of chemical treatment association between KAI2 and SMXLs was hardly 284

detected, but the KAI2-SMAX1 and KAI2-SMXL2 interactions were strongly induced by 285

GR24ent-5DS

treatment. SMXL6 could weakly interact with KAI2 under GR24ent-5DS

286

treatment, but SMXL5 showed no interaction, suggesting that SMXL6 is able to form a 287

complex with KAI2 with low efficiency in the protoplast system employed. We further 288

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11

compared the effects of KAR1, GR24ent-5DS

, GR245DS

, and GR244DO

on KAI2-SMXL2 289

interaction and found that GR245DS

and GR244DO

could barely stimulate protein 290

association, indicating that GR24ent-5DS

preferentially and effectively triggers the 291

interaction between SMXL2 and KAI2 in vivo (Figure 3B). KAR1 did not trigger protein 292

association in this experiment, which might be due to insufficient time or capability for 293

the activation of KAR1 in this system. Together, these data clearly show that interaction 294

of SMXL2 with D14 and KAI2 is promoted by ligands that selectively activate SL and 295

KAR signaling, respectively. 296

297

SMXL2 Undergoes Ubiquitination upon SL or KAR Treatment 298

Polyubiquitination and degradation of rice D53 and Arabidopsis SMXL6, SMXL7 and 299

SMXL8 proteins in response to SL treatment are core events in SL signaling (Jiang et al., 300

2013; Zhou et al., 2013; Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015; Liang et al., 2016). 301

However, the biochemical mechanism underlying KAR signaling remains to be 302

determined. We therefore investigated the polyubiquitination of SMXL2 upon activation 303

of SL and KAR signaling in Arabidopsis leaf protoplasts. Clear polyubiquitination of 304

GFP-SMXL2 was observed upon treatment with rac-GR24 for 1.5 h but not by treatment 305

with KAR1 (Supplemental Figure 3), which is consistent with its inability to induce 306

interaction with SMXL2 in the protoplast system. We then investigated the 307

polyubiquitination of SMXL2 using a more responsive system. In transgenic plants 308

overexpressing SMXL2-GFP under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 309

35S promoter, GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

could trigger the ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP 310

recombinant protein within 20 min, although KAR1 showed no effect (Figure 4A). 311

However, when the KAR1 treatment was prolonged to 2 h, a weak signal for the 312

ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP could be detected, indicating a slow SMXL2 313

polyubiquitination induced by KAR1 (Figure 4B). 314

We next evaluated the contribution of SL or KAR receptor to the ubiquitination of 315

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12

SMXL2 induced by GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

. Seedlings of transgenic plants expressing 316

35S:SMXL2-GFP in wild-type, d14-1 or kai2-2 backgrounds were treated for 20 min with 317

GR244DO

. The ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP was observed in the wild type and kai2-2 318

but was very weak in the d14-1 background (Figure 4C). By contrast, the 319

polyubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP triggered by GR24ent-5DS

was dramatically impaired in 320

the kai2-2 background compared with the wild type, but only slightly weakened in the 321

d14-1 background (Figures 4C), indicating that the SMXL2 ubiquitination induced by 322

GR24ent-5DS

depends largely on KAI2. We then examined the ubiquitination level of 323

GFP-SMXL2 in protoplasts from wild type and the d14-1 kai2-2 double mutant (Figure 324

4D). The SMXL2 ubiquitination induced by GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

was not detected in 325

d14-1 kai2-2, indicating that ubiquitination of SMXL2 in the d14-1 and kai2-2 single 326

mutants was probably due to incomplete specificity of GR24 stereoisomers for D14 and 327

KAI2. 328

We further examined the effects of GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

on SMXL6 329

ubiquitination in protoplasts and found that SMXL6 underwent ubiquitination after 330

GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment, but the GR24ent-5DS

-induced ubiquitination of SMXL6 331

was weaker than that of SMXL2 (Figure 4E). More importantly, the GR244DO

-induced 332

SMXL6 ubiquitination was not detected in d14-1 but largely unaffected in kai2-2. The 333

GR24ent-5DS

-induced SMXL6 ubiquitination was obviously impaired in both d14-1 and 334

kai2-2 single mutants (Figure 4E), suggesting that GR244DO

induced SMXL6 335

ubiquitination through D14, but the GR24ent-5DS

-triggered SMXL6 ubiquitination could 336

function through both KAI2 and D14. This phenomenon is consistent with previous 337

reports that ubiquitination and degradation of SMXL6-GFP upon rac-GR24 treatment is 338

completely blocked in d14-1 (Wang et al. 2015). Taken together, these data demonstrate 339

that SL and KAR signaling trigger the ubiquitination of SMXL2 in a manner that 340

predominantly depends on D14 and KAI2, respectively. 341

342

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13

SMXL2 Is Degraded upon SL or KAR Treatment 343

Since polyubiquitination can regulate the stability and function of target proteins 344

(Mukhopadhyay and Riezman, 2007; Wang et al., 2017b), we examined the stability of 345

SMXL2 in response to SL and KAR treatments of seedlings harboring the stably 346

transformed SMXL2-GFP transgene. We observed that GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

347

triggered significant degradation of the SMXL2-GFP recombinant protein within 20 min, 348

whereas KAR1 induced a slower rate of degradation, which was apparent after 60 min but 349

took 120-240 min to achieve comparable degradation (Figure 5A). We further observed 350

the GFP fluorescence in root tips of 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic plants using Z-stack 351

screening of confocal images and found that it was distributed throughout in root tip 352

(Supplemental Figure 4). To visualize the endogenous degradation of SMXL2-GFP in 353

response to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

treatments, we quantified the GFP fluorescence 354

signal in single plane of fixed focus and examined its changes during the time course of 355

chemical treatment. These results established that the GFP fluorescence was significantly 356

reduced after GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

treatment for 10 min, 20 min and 30 min, but 357

remained stable under mock treatment (Figure 5B and 5C). These results collectively 358

demonstrate that either SL or KAR signaling is able to induce ubiquitination and 359

degradation of SMXL2 in Arabidopsis thaliana. 360

To evaluate the contributions of SL and KAR receptors to GR244DO

- and 361

GR24ent-5DS

-induced SMXL2 degradation, seedlings of transgenic plants expressing 362

35S:SMXL2-GFP in wild-type, d14-1 or kai2-2 backgrounds were treated with GR244DO

363

and GR24ent-5DS

. The degradation of SMXL2-GFP induced by GR244DO

was blocked in 364

d14-1 but was weakly attenuated in kai2-2 (Figure 5D), indicating that SMXL2 365

undergoes a D14-dependent ubiquitination and degradation in response to GR244DO

. By 366

contrast, the GR24ent-5DS

-triggered SMXL2-GFP degradation was clearly impaired in 367

kai2-2 compared with the wild type, but only slightly delayed in d14-1 (Figures 5D), 368

indicating that the degradation of SMXL2 induced by GR24ent-5DS

depends largely on 369

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14

KAI2. 370

371

The RGKT Motif of SMXL2 Is Essential for its Ubiquitination and Degradation 372

Induced by SL and KAR Signaling 373

The ubiquitination and degradation of SMXL6 and SMXL7 in Arabidopsis and D53 in 374

rice depend on the conserved RGKT motif within the C-terminal portion of these proteins 375

(Jiang et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2015; Liang et al., 2016). Comparison 376

of amino acid sequences of the Arabidopsis SMXL family showed that the RGKT motif 377

is conserved in SMXL proteins in SL and KAR signaling pathways including SMAX1, 378

SMXL2, SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8, but is absent from SMXL3, SMXL4, and 379

SMXL5, which are not implicated in SL or KAR signaling (Supplemental Figure 5). This 380

analysis prompted us to investigate roles of the RGKT motif in ubiquitination and 381

degradation of SMXL2 induced by SLs and KARs to determine if it is important in both 382

signaling pathways. 383

We generated 35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgenic plants that over-express a mutated 384

SMXL2 protein bearing a deletion specifically of the RGKT motif (Supplemental Figure 385

6). We found that the ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP was detected after GR244DO

386

treatment for 20 min, but the ubiquitination of SMXL2D-GFP was abolished (Figure 6A). 387

Similarly, deletion of the RGKT motif prevented the ubiquitination of SMXL2 induced 388

by GR24ent-5DS

treatment for 20 min or KAR1 for 60 min (Figures 6B and 6C). 389

Furthermore, GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

and KAR1 could trigger the degradation of 390

SMXL2-GFP but showed no effect on the amount of SMXL2D-GFP protein (Figures 6D 391

and 6E). The GFP fluorescence signals in root tips of 35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgenic 392

plants were stable throughout the 30 min treatment with GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

393

(Figure 6F and 6G, Supplemental Figure 4). Therefore, the ubiquitination and 394

degradation of SMXL2 in response to SL and KAR treatments require the RGKT motif. 395

396

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15

SMXL2 Is Important for GR244DO

- and GR24ent-5DS

-Regulated Hypocotyl 397

Elongation 398

To explore the function of SMXL2 in seedling development, we examined the hypocotyl 399

length of Col-0, smax1, smxl2, smax1 smxl2 (double mutant) and smxl6 smxl7 smxl8 400

(triple mutant, hereafter referred to as smxl6,7,8) after treatment with GR244DO

, 401

GR24ent-5DS

, and GR244DO

plus GR24ent-5DS

. Hypocotyls of the smax1 and smxl2 single 402

mutants were somewhat shorter than those of wild type, whereas the hypocotyl length of 403

the smax1 smxl2 double mutant was only 22% of the wild type (Figure 7A). These results 404

are largely consistence with previously reported observations (Stanga et al., 2016). More 405

importantly, GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

repressed hypocotyl elongation and showed an 406

additive effect in Col-0, and the repression by GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

in smax1 was 407

stronger than that in Col-0, indicating that SMXL2 plays an important role in hypocotyl 408

responses to both GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

. In the smxl2 mutant, although the effect of 409

GR24ent-5DS

was similar with that in Col-0, the effect of GR244DO

was rather weak. This 410

weak effect might be due to the possible ‘leakiness’ of the smxl2 mutant or the possibility 411

that other proteins also participate in these hypocotyl responses, which is supported by 412

the further suppression of hypocotyl length in the smax1 smxl2 double mutant in response 413

to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

treatments (Figure 7A). The hypocotyl response of the 414

smxl6,7,8 triple mutant to chemical treatment was similar to the wild type, indicating that 415

SMXL6, SMXL7 and SMXL8 are not involved in the regulation of hypocotyl elongation 416

by SLs and KARs (Figure 7A). These results indicate that SMAX1 and SMXL2 display 417

functional redundancy in the hypocotyl response to GR24ent-5DS

, and SMXL2 plays 418

important roles in hypocotyl responses to both GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

. 419

We next compared the influence of SMXL2D and SMXL6D in the hypocotyl 420

response to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

. Seedlings of 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 transgenic 421

plants grew longer hypocotyls than the wild type and were insensitive to either GR244DO

422

or GR24ent-5DS

, but the 35S:SMXL6D-GFP/Col-0 transgenic plants displayed similar 423

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16

phenotypes to wild type (Figure 7B), further supporting the importance of SMXL2 in 424

hypocotyl responses to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

. In addition, the abundance of 425

SMXL2-GFP in the hypocotyl of 35S:SMXL2-GFP seedlings grown in the presence of 426

GR244DO

plus GR24ent-5DS

was only about 6% of that in 35S:SMXL2-GFP seedlings 427

without chemical treatment (Supplemental Figure 7), indicating that GR244DO

and 428

GR24ent-5DS

induced degradation of SMXL2-GFP in the hypocotyl. Importantly, seedlings 429

of 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0 transgenic plants were sensitive to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

430

treatments, but the 35S:SMXL2-GFP/d14-1 transgenic plants were insensitive to 431

GR244DO

and sensitive to GR24ent-5DS

treatment. By contrast, the 432

35S:SMXL2-GFP/kai2-2 transgenic plants were insensitive to GR24ent-5DS

and sensitive 433

to GR244DO

treatment (Figure 7C). These results demonstrated that SMXL2 mediates 434

both SL- and KAR-regulated hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis. 435

In Arabidopsis, SMXL6, SMXL7 and SMXL8 promote shoot branching mainly 436

through repressing BRANCHED 1 (BRC1) expression and enhancing polar auxin 437

transport (Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015). They are degraded in response to 438

D14-dependent SL signaling, leading to repression of shoot branching. Since SMXL2 is 439

also degraded in response to SL signaling, we investigated whether SMXL2 regulates 440

shoot branching. We found that numbers of primary rosette branches of smax1, smxl2, 441

and smax1 smxl2 were similar to Col-0 whereas d14-1 had many more branches 442

(Supplemental Figure 8A). We further found that although the 35S:SMXL2D-GFP and 443

35S:SMXL6D-GFP transgenic plants contained comparable levels of the corresponding 444

SMXL2D-GFP and SMXL6D-GFP proteins in their rosette lateral buds, the primary 445

branch number of 35S:SMXL6D-GFP transgenic plants was significantly increased while 446

that of 35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgenic plants was indistinguishable from the wild type 447

(Supplemental Figure 8B, 8C). These data suggest that SMXL2 does not apparently 448

regulate shoot branching even when ectopically expressed in lateral shoot buds, at least in 449

Col-0 background. This further emphasizes the importance of SMXL2 in seedling 450

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17

development. 451

452

Regulation of DLK2 and KUF1 by SLs Depends on SMXL2 Whereas KAR Signaling 453

Employs either SMAX1 or SMXL2 454

To investigate the function of SMXL2 in the regulation of gene expression, we analyzed 455

the transcript levels of DLK2 and KUF1, which have been reported to respond to KARs 456

and SLs (Scaffidi et al., 2013; Scaffidi et al., 2014; Waters et al., 2015), in seedlings of 457

wild type, smax1, smxl2, smax1 smxl2 double mutant and smxl6,7,8 triple mutant. 458

Expression levels of DLK2 and KUF1 were comparable in the wild type, smax1, smxl2 459

and smxl6,7,8 triple mutant, but were remarkably elevated in the smax1 smxl2 double 460

mutant, indicating that both SMAX1 and SMXL2 repress the expression of DLK2 and 461

KUF1 (Figure 8A). These results are consistent with previously reported observations 462

(Stanga et al., 2016). However, MAX4 expression was downregulated in the smxl6,7,8 463

triple mutant compared with wild type, but remained unchanged in smax1, smxl2, and 464

smax1 smxl2 double mutant (Figure 8A). Thus, SMAX1 and SMXL2 mainly mediate the 465

transcriptional response of DLK2 and KUF1, whereas the SMXL6, SMXL7, SMXL8 466

group mainly mediates expression of the SL-responsive gene MAX4. More importantly, 467

expression of DLK2 and KUF1 were decreased in the SL-biosynthetic mutants max1 and 468

max4, suggesting that endogenous SLs could activate expression of DLK2 and KUF1 in 469

seedlings (Figure 8B). 470

Furthermore, exogenously applied GR244DO

could significantly induce the471

expression of DLK2 and KUF1 in wild type, smxl6,7,8 triple mutant, and smax1 single 472

mutant, indicating that GR244DO

promotes expression of DLK2 and KUF1 independently473

of SMXL6, SMXL7, SMXL8 and SMAX1 (Figure 8C). Interestingly, GR244DO

showed474

no effect in smxl2 or smax1 smxl2, indicating that SMXL2 is essential for stimulation of 475

DLK2 and KUF1 expression by SL signaling (Figure 8C). We further evaluated the 476

contribution of SMXL family members in mediating the expression of DLK2 and KUF1 477

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18

induced by KAR signaling and found that GR24ent-5DS

could trigger an increase in478

transcript abundance of DLK2 and KUF1 in wild-type, smxl6,7,8 triple mutant, and 479

smax1 and smxl2 single mutant plants, but could not induce DLK2 and KUF1 expression 480

in the smax1 smxl2 double mutant (Figure 8C). This result indicates that SMAX1 and 481

SMXL2 are both required for activation of DLK2 and KUF1 expression in KAR 482

signaling. Moreover, both GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

could induce the expression of DLK2483

and KUF1 in seedlings of Col-0 and 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic plants, but had no 484

effect on seedlings of 35S:SMXL2D-GFP, indicating that SMXL2 induces the expression 485

of DLK2 and KUF1 in response to GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

in an “RGKT”-dependent486

manner (Figure 8D). Together, these results establish that SL stimulates DLK2 and KUF1 487

expression through SMXL2, whereas KAR induces DLK2 and KUF1 expression through 488

SMAX1 and SMXL2 (Figure 8E). 489

490

DISCUSSION 491

SMXL2 Is Involved in Both SL and KAR Signaling Pathways 492

Based on findings in this and earlier studies, we propose an overview model of SL and 493

KAR signaling in Arabidopsis (Figure 9). Previous research has shown that in the 494

presence of SLs, D14 forms a complex with MAX2 and one or more of SMXL6, SMXL7 495

and SMXL8. The complex triggers ubiquitination and degradation of SMXLs, dependent 496

on the RGKT motif, followed by de-repression of key genes that suppress shoot 497

branching, such as BRC1 (Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015). We now show that 498

in seedlings, SLs stimulate the association of D14 with SMXL2 (Figure 2), which is 499

ubiquitinated and degraded (Figures 4 and 5), also dependent on the RGKT motif (Figure 500

6). Degradation of SMXL2 presumably relieves the repression of genes that function to 501

inhibit hypocotyl elongation (Figure 7) and also relieves repression of DLK2 and KUF1 502

(Figure 8). Similarly, for KAR signaling, KAR1 or the KAR surrogate GR24ent-5DS

, induce503

KAI2 to form a complex with MAX2 (Supplemental Figure 2) and with SMXL2 (Figure 504

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19

3), triggering the ubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2 in a manner dependent on the 505

RGKT motif (Figures 4 to 6), and further regulating gene expression (Figure 8) and 506

hypocotyl elongation (Figure 7). GR24ent-5DS

also induces interaction between KAI2 and 507

SMAX1 (Figure 3) and is speculated to trigger ubiquitination and degradation of SMAX1, 508

although we have not yet demonstrated this. Importantly, these results collectively show 509

that SMXL2 is a common target for proteolysis in both SL and KAR signaling and it 510

functions as a repressor protein regulating hypocotyl elongation and gene expression in 511

Arabidopsis (Figure 9). 512

Members of the SMXL protein family in Arabidopsis have been considered to play 513

specific roles in response to different signaling molecules (Mach, 2015; Soundappan et 514

al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015; Stanga et al., 2016; Wallner et al., 2017). SMXL6, SMXL7 515

and SMXL8 function as key transcriptional repressor proteins in SL signaling, while 516

SMAX1 and SMXL2 are important for KAR-regulated changes in transcripts 517

(Soundappan et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2015; Stanga et al., 2016). However, SLs and 518

KARs also regulate the expression of several common downstream genes, for instance 519

SALT TOLERANCE H-BOX7 (STH7), DLK2, KUF1, INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID 520

INDUCIBLE5 (IAA5), and IAA6 (Scaffidi et al., 2013; Scaffidi et al., 2014; Waters et al., 521

2015). Because F-box protein MAX2 is required for targeting and proteolysis of SMXL 522

proteins, we speculated that SMXL2 could be responsible for this convergence in 523

regulation of gene expression by SLs and KARs. Interestingly, disruption of SMXL6, 524

SMXL7, and SMXL8 collectively, or SMAX1 or SMXL2 has no effect on the induction of 525

DLK2 and KUF1, but disruption of both SMAX1 and SMXL2 greatly enhanced the 526

expression of DLK2 and KUF1 (Figure 8A) (Stanga et al., 2016) and completely 527

abolished the upregulation in response to SLs and KARs (Figure 8C). Thus, biochemical 528

and genetic data in this study clearly demonstrate that SMXL2 is common to both SL and 529

KAR signaling, and plays a key role in integrating responses to SLs and KARs at the 530

transcription level. 531

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20

532

Specificity of GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

in SL and KAR signaling in Arabidopsis 533

A strong connection between KARs and SLs is seen in their chemical structures, 534

with common butenolide moieties (Smith and Li, 2014). The natural SL isomers 5DS and 535

4DO regulate shoot branching, hypocotyl elongation and gene expression in a 536

D14-dependent manner, while the non-natural enantiomer ent-5DS selectively regulates 537

seed germination and hypocotyl elongation through KAI2 (Scaffidi et al., 2014). The 538

structure-activity relationship and receptor recognition studies have demonstrated that the 539

configuration at C-2' plays a critical role in signal perception of SLs and KARs in 540

Arabidopsis and rice (Scaffidi et al., 2014; Umehara et al., 2015), but the chemical 541

specificity is not absolute and might vary at different growth stages or in different 542

experimental systems (Li et al. 2016b; Villaécija-Aguilar et al. 2019). We found that 543

GR244DO

could induce downstream gene expression, the ubiquitination and degradation 544

of SMXL2 and SMXL6, and repress hypocotyl elongation of the 35S:SMXL2-GFP 545

transgenic plants in a D14-dependent manner, indicating that GR244DO

specifically 546

displayed SL activity in Arabidopsis (Figures 1, 4C, 5D, and 7C). GR24ent-5DS

induced a 547

strong interaction between KAI2 and SMXL2 but also a very weak interaction between 548

D14 and SMXL2 in Co-IP assays (Figures 2B, 3A and 3B). GR24ent-5DS

could also 549

stimulate a relatively strong ubiquitination of SMXL2 that was weaker in d14-1 but 550

largely blocked in kai2-2 (Figure 4C). These data indicate that GR24ent-5DS

displays 551

strong KAR-like activity and low SL activity in Arabidopsis. 552

Although KAR1 and GR24ent-5DS

induced transcripts of DLK2 after treatment for 24 553

h to 72 h in a KAI2-dependent manner (Sun et al., 2016), we found that compared with 554

GR24ent-5DS

, KAR1 was less effective in the experimental systems detecting protein 555

ubiquitination, degradation, protein-protein interactions and regulation of transcript levels, 556

especially within short-term treatments in the region of an hour. These observations are 557

consistent with the view that KAR1 might require metabolism in vivo to produce a ligand 558

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21

that can be recognized by the receptor KAI2 (Waters et al., 2015; Waters et al., 2017). 559

However, until the endogenous ligand for KAI2 is identified, it is difficult to fully assess 560

the factors that result in KAI2-mediated regulation of seed germination and seedling 561

development. Therefore, discovery of the endogenous KAI2 ligand, KL, is becoming 562

increasingly important (Morffy et al., 2016; Sun et al., 2016; Waters et al., 2017; Yao et 563

al., 2018a; Smith, 2019). 564

565

Co-Evolution of the SMXL and KAI2/D14 Families 566

Evolutionary analysis shows that KAI2 orthologs exist in basal land plants, and the 567

endogenous KL is predicted to exist throughout land plants from basal to seed plants 568

(Waters et al., 2012; Conn and Nelson, 2015; Gutjahr et al 2015; Kameoka and Kyozuka, 569

2015; Waters et al., 2017; Carbonnel et al 2019;). Interestingly, SMXL family members 570

are not apparent in the charophytes, but have been identified in non-vascular plants 571

including liverworts and mosses, and display 60-65% sequence identity with Arabidopsis 572

SMAX1. These ancient forms of SMAX1 subsequently underwent duplication in land 573

plants and evolved into four major clades consisting of homologs of SMAX1, and 574

SMXL2 as clade I, SMXL6, SMXL7 and SMXL8 as clade II, SMXL3 as clade III, and 575

SMXL4 and SMXL5 as clade IV (Moturu et al., 2018). Our current studies indicate that 576

SMAX1 and SMXL2 mainly control seedling development especially hypocotyl 577

elongation, which is important throughout land plants. By contrast, shoot branching and 578

vascular development are notable features of vascular plants, for which SMXL clades II, 579

III and IV have been shown to be required. The correlation between evolutionary history 580

and functional differentiation of SMXL proteins provides new evidence for the 581

hypothesis of co-evolution between the SMXL family and KAI2/D14 family (Moturu et 582

al., 2018). More importantly, we now show that SMXL2 interacts with both the KAR 583

receptor KAI2 and the SL receptor D14 (Figures 2 and 3), and undergoes 584

polyubiquitination and degradation to regulate gene expression and seedling development 585

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22

(Figures 3 to 8). GR24ent-5DS

induced a weak interaction between SMXL6 and KAI2 586

(Figure 3A) and a weak ubiquitination that was impaired in kai2-2 (Figure 4E), 587

suggesting that SMXL6 could form a complex with KAI2 and undergo ubiquitination 588

with low efficiency in response to GR24ent-5DS

treatment. This may reflect the 589

evolutionary origin of interactions between the KAR receptor and SMXL-type repressor 590

proteins, although KAI2 and SMXL6 genes are not thought to be co-expressed normally. 591

The demonstration that KAR and SL signaling employ the same mechanism of 592

MAX2-dependent SMXL polyubiquitination and proteolysis provides strong support for 593

the proposed co-evolution of SL signaling and SMXL functions from an ancestral 594

KAI2-SMAX1 system (Moturu et al., 2018; Machin et al., 2020). 595

596

SL- and KAR-Regulated Seedling Development 597

Hypocotyl elongation is important to push the apex of young seedlings out of the 598

soil or deep water to receive light and continue vegetative and reproductive development. 599

Hypocotyl elongation is regulated by various phytohormones, including auxin, 600

gibberellin, ethylene, brassinosteroid and jasmonate (Yang et al., 2011; Li et al., 2016a; 601

Shi et al., 2016; Reed et al., 2018; Yi et al., 2020). It has been reported that hypocotyls of 602

wild-type seedlings under red light are sensitive to both SL and KAR treatment; and 603

SMAX1 and SMXL2 collectively mediate the KAR-repressed hypocotyl development 604

(Stanga et al., 2016). However, the molecular mechanism underlying SL-regulated 605

hypocotyl development has been unclear. Here we show that transgenic plants 606

overexpressing degradation-resistant SMXL2 possessed longer hypocotyls that were 607

insensitive to exogenously applied SL and KAR, but overexpressing degradation-resistant 608

SMXL6 showed no effect on hypocotyl response, and the hypocotyl response to 609

exogenously applied SL was blocked in the d14 background (Figure 7B and 7C). Based 610

on the roles of SMXL2 in SL signaling, these results clearly show that it is SMXL2 rather 611

than SMXL6, SMXL7, or SMXL8 that functions as a repressor protein in SL-regulated 612

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23

hypocotyl development in Arabidopsis. 613

Recent evolutionary analyses have shown that SMXL2 appears due to a recent 614

duplication of SMAX1 in the Brassicaceae and has not been observed in the genome of 615

plants belonging to other families (Walker et al., 2019). Interestingly, the rice SL mutants 616

d10, d14, and d17 form elongated mesocotyl in comparison to wild type (Hu et al., 2010; 617

Hu et al., 2013), but the Arabidopsis SL mutants max1, max3, max4 and d14 form 618

hypocotyls indistinguishable from wild type (Nelson et al., 2011; Scaffidi et al., 2013; 619

Scaffidi et al., 2014). This may be due to the possible role of D53 and D53L in 620

SL-regulated rice mesocotyl development. Meanwhile, the rice d3 mutant (equivalent to 621

Arabidopsis max2) displays a more elongated mesocotyl phenotype than d14 and SL 622

biosynthesis-deficient mutants (Hu et al., 2010), suggesting a potential role of the KAR 623

signaling pathway in mesocotyl development (Kameoka and Kyozuka, 2015). Further 624

investigation of SL and KAR signaling and the roles of D53-family proteins in mesocotyl 625

elongation could provide a breakthrough in understanding rice seedling growth and 626

development. This is important for the future agricultural practice of direct seeding to 627

avoid seedling transplantation in rice crop production. In other crops, increased 628

elongation of hypocotyl or mesocotyl could permit deeper sowing of seeds in soils in 629

which the surface layers are at risk from drying. Thus, our research enables further 630

understanding of the control of seed germination, seedling skotomorphogenesis and 631

photomorphogenesis, which provides major opportunities for future improvements in 632

agriculture. 633

634

METHODS 635

Plant Materials and Growth Conditions 636

Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Columbia (Col-0) was used as wild type. The smxl6,7,8 637

triple mutant (Wang et al., 2015), d14-1 (Waters et al., 2012), smax1-2 (Stanga et al., 638

2013), smxl2-1 (Stanga et al., 2016) and smax1-2 smxl2-1 double mutant (Stanga et al., 639

Page 24: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

24

2016), max1-1 (Stirnberg et al., 2002), and max4-5 (Bennett et al., 2006) mutants have 640

been described previously. The kai2-2 (Waters et al., 2012) mutant in Ler background 641

was backcrossed to Col-0 six times by Dr. Mark Waters (University of Western Australia) 642

and was provided by Dr. Ruifeng Yao (Tsinghua University). Seeds were surface 643

sterilized, vernalized at 4 ºC, and germinated on 0.5× Murashige and Skoog (MS) 644

medium containing 1.0% (w/v) sucrose and 0.7% (w/v) agar. For morphological 645

observations, 10-day-old seedlings were transferred to pots containing a 1:1 646

vermiculite:soil mixture saturated with 0.3× MS medium. Plants were grown under 647

controlled conditions at about 21 ºC, 16-h light, 8-h dark cycle, and fluorescent lamps 648

with a light intensity of 60-80 μE m−2

s−1

as described previously (Dai et al., 2006). 649

650

Chemicals and Reagents 651

Synthetic rac-GR24 and KAR1 were obtained from Chiralix (Nijmegen, The 652

Netherlands). The SL analogue GR244DO

, GR245DS

and GR24ent-5DS

were synthesized 653

through the following method. GR24 stereoisomers were prepared as previously 654

described (Mangnus et al., 1992). Then flash chromatography was performed to give two 655

kinds of enantiomers. The enantiomers moving faster were further separated into 656

GR24ent-5DS

and GR245DS

, and the enantiomers moving slower were separated into 657

GR24ent-4DO

and GR244DO

using HPLC fitted with a Chiral HPLC Column (150 mm long, 658

4.6-mminternal diameter). Separation was achieved using a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1

of a 659

1:1 mixture of hexane:ethyl alcohol. The corresponding components were collected and 660

obtained pure optical isomers. MG132 was obtained from Calbiochem (California, USA). 661

The stock solution of rac-GR24, KAR1, GR244DO

, GR245DS

, or GR24ent-5DS

was prepared 662

in acetone, and stock solution of MG132 was prepared in Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). 663

664

Vector Construction and Plant Transformation 665

To construct the 35S:SMXL2-GFP plasmid, the coding sequence of SMXL2 was 666

Page 25: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

25

amplified with primer pairs of SMXL2-OE-F and SMXL2-OE-R (Supplemental Table 1), 667

and then cloned into KpnI- and SalI-digested pWM101. To construct the 668

35S:SMXL2D-GFP plasmid, SMXL2D was amplified through site-directed mutagenesis 669

using primer pairs of SMXL2-DEL-F and SMXL2-DEL-R, and then cloned into 670

pWM101. The 35S:SMXL2-GFP and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP recombinant plasmids were 671

introduced into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA105 and used to transform 672

wild-type, d14-1 and kai2-2 plants through the Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip 673

method. To construct the plasmids of 35S:GFP-SMXL2, 35S:GFP-SMXL5 and 674

35S:3×HA-KAI2, the coding sequence of SMXL2, SMXL5 and KAI2 were amplified with 675

primer pairs of SMXL2-PD-F, SMXL2-PD-R, SMXL5-PD-F, SMXL5-PD-R and 676

KAI2-PD-F, KAI2-PD-R (Supplemental Table 1), then cloned into the Gateway Entry 677

vector by BP reaction and recombined to pBeacon-eGFP and pBeacon-3×HA (Wang et 678

al., 2015) through LR reaction. To construct the plasmids of 35S:GFP-SMAX1, the 679

codon-optimized SMAX1 coding sequence was amplified from the Flag-SMAX1 plasmid 680

(Yao et al., 2017) with primer pairs of SMAX1-PD-F, SMAX1-PD-R, then cloned into 681

the pBeacon-eGFP vector through BP and LR reaction. 682

683

Gene Expression Analysis 684

The wild type, mutants of smax1, smxl2, smax1 smxl2, smxl6,7,8, max1, max4, d14-1, 685

kai2-2, 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0 and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 were grown on agar with 686

0.5× MS medium for ten days, collected and equilibrated in 0.5× MS liquid medium for 2 687

h, then treated with GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, KAR1 or acetone in the light at about 21 ºC 688

for 4 h. The whole seedlings were frozen and ground into power in liquid nitrogen. Total 689

RNA was prepared using a TRIzol kit (Invitrogen, USA) according to the user manual. 690

RNA samples (each containing 12.5 μg RNA) were treated with TUBRO DNase 691

(Ambion, USA). Then first-strand cDNA was synthesized using oligo (dT) and random 692

primers with the SSIII first-strand synthesis system (Invitrogen, USA). Real-time PCR 693

Page 26: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

26

was performed using gene-specific primers (see Supplemental Table 1) on a CFX 96 694

real-time PCR detection system (BioRad, USA) in a total volume of 10 μL with 2 μL 695

diluted cDNA, 0.3 μM gene-specific primers, and 5 μL SsoFast EvaGreen supermix 696

(BioRad, Singapore). The real deltaCt values are determined relative to the Arabidopsis 697

ACTIN2 (ACT2) gene (Weissgerber et al. 2015). 698

699

Co-Immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) Assay 700

Protoplasts were generated from mesophyll cells of Arabidopsis leaves (Yoo et al., 2007) 701

and transformed with transient expression plasmids including 35S:3×HA-D14 (Wang et 702

al., 2015), 35S:GFP-SMXL2, 35S:GFP (Wang et al., 2015), 35S:3×HA-KAI2, and 703

35S:GFP-MAX2 (Wang et al., 2015). After incubation at 21 ºC for 11 h followed by 704

another 1 h with 100 µM GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, KAR1, or GR245DS

, protoplasts were705

collected in protein extraction buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 10% 706

(v/v) glycerol, 1% (v/v) Nonidet P-40) and 1× ‘Complete Protease Inhibitor Cocktail’ 707

(Cat#04693132001, lot no. 41353700; Roche, Switzerland). The lysate was centrifuged at 708

18,000 g for 15 min at 4 ºC, and the supernatant was collected for Co-IP assay. In brief, 709

30 μl of the agarose-conjugated anti-GFP monoclonal antibody (D153-8, lot no. 048; 710

MBL, Japan) was added into 1 ml total extracted protein solution and incubated at 4 ºC 711

for 3 h in the presence or absence of GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, KAR1, and GR245DS

. The712

beads were washed three times with extraction buffer containing 0.1% (v/v) NP-40, then 713

eluted with 25 μl of SDS–PAGE sample buffer for immunoblot analysis. The levels of 714

GFP-SMXL2, GFP-MAX2, and GFP protein were detected using mouse anti-GFP 715

monoclonal anti-body (Cat#11814460001, lot no.11751700; Roche, Switzerland) at a 716

1:2,000 dilution and ‘One Step Western Kit HRP (Mouse)’ (CW2030M, lot no. 717

03803/40449; CoWin Biosciences, China) at 1:200 dilution. The levels of HA-D14 and 718

HA-KAI2 protein were detected using rabbit anti-HA polyclonal antibody (H6908, lot No. 719

106M4792; Sigma, Germany) at a 1:2,000 dilution and anti-rabbit IgG HRP linked whole 720

Page 27: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

27

Ab (NA934V, lot no. 9761194; GE Healthcare, USA) at 1:10,000 dilution. Signals were 721

then detected using ‘Amersham ECL Select Western Blotting Detection Reagent’ 722

(RPN2235, lot no. 16926118; GE Healthcare, USA) and X-ray film. 723

724

In Vivo Ubiquitination Assay 725

The transgenic plants of 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0, 35S:SMXL2-GFP/d14-1, 726

35S:SMXL2-GFP/kai2-2, and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 were grown for 7 d, collected 727

and pretreated with 50 µM MG132 for 1 h, then treated with KAR1, rac-GR24, GR244DO

, 728

GR24ent-5DS

or acetone for the indicated time in 0.5× MS liquid medium at 21 °C. Equal 729

weights of plant materials were collected for protein extraction using protein extraction 730

buffer containing 1× ‘Complete Protease Inhibitor Cocktail’ (Cat# 04693132001, lot No. 731

41353700; Roche, Switzerland). Then 30 μl of anti-GFP monoclonal antibody-conjugated 732

agarose (D153-8, lot No. 048; MBL, Japan) was added into 1 ml total proteins extract and 733

incubated at 4 ºC for 3 h with gentle rotation. The beads were washed three times with 734

the protein extraction buffer containing 0.1% (v/v) NP-40, and then eluted with 25 μl of 735

the SDS–PAGE sample buffer for protein blotting. The polyubiquitination level was 736

detected using mouse anti-ubiquitin monoclonal antibody (Zhao et al., 2013b) at a 737

1:3,000 dilution and anti-mouse IgG HRP linked whole Ab (NA931V, lot No. 9761190; 738

GE Healthcare, USA) at 1:10,000 dilution. The levels of SMXL2-GFP and 739

SMXL2D-GFP proteins were detected using the mouse anti-GFP monoclonal antibody 740

(Cat# 11814460001, lot No. 11751700; Roche, Switzerland) at a 1:2,000 dilution and 741

‘One Step Western Kit HRP (Mouse)’ (CW2030M, lot No. 03803/40449; CoWin 742

Biosciences, China) at 1:200 dilution. Signals were then detected using ‘Amersham ECL 743

Select Western Blotting Detection Reagent’ (RPN2235, lot No. 16926118; GE 744

Healthcare, USA) and X-ray film. 745

In the ubiquitination system using protoplasts, the GFP-SMXL2 and GFP-SMXL6 746

recombinant proteins were expressed in Arabidopsis protoplasts made from mesophyll 747

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28

cells (Yoo et al., 2007). Equal volumes of protoplasts were pre-treated with MG132 for 1 748

h and treated with indicated chemicals for 1.5 h, then underwent protein extraction using 749

lysis buffer. Equal volumes of GFP monoclonal antibody-conjugated agarose beads 750

(D153-8, lot No. 048; MBL, Japan) were added to each sample, incubated for 3 h, 751

washed for 3 times, and eluted with 30 µl 2× SDS loading buffer. Then 10 µl eluted 752

sample was used to detect polyubiquitination and GFP levels in immunoblots. The 753

polyubiquitination level was detected using anti-ubiquitin monoclonal antibody (Zhao et 754

al., 2013b) at a 1:3,000 dilution and anti-mouse IgG HRP linked whole Ab (NA931V, lot 755

No. 9761190; GE Healthcare, USA) at 1:10,000 dilution. The levels of GFP-SMXL2 and 756

GFP-SMXL6 proteins were detected using the mouse anti-GFP monoclonal antibody 757

(Cat#11814460001, lot No. 11751700; Roche, Switzerland) at a 1:2,000 dilution and 758

‘One Step Western Kit HRP (Mouse)’ (CW2030M, lot No. 03803/40449; CoWin 759

Biosciences, China) at 1:200 dilution. Signals were then detected using ‘Amersham ECL 760

Select Western Blotting Detection Reagent’ (RPN2235, lot No. 16926118; GE 761

Healthcare, USA) and X-ray film. 762

763

SMXL2 Degradation 764

The transgenic plants of 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0, 35S:SMXL2-GFP/d14-1, 765

35S:SMXL2-GFP/kai2-2, and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 were grown for 7 d, collected 766

and treated with GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, or KAR1 for the indicated time in 0.5× MS liquid767

medium at 21 °C. Equal weight of plant materials were collected for protein extraction 768

using lysis buffer containing 1× ‘Complete Protease Inhibitor Cocktail’ (Cat# 769

04693132001, lot No. 41353700; Roche, Switzerland). Protein levels of SMXL2-GFP 770

and SMXL2D-GFP were detected by immunoblotting with mouse anti-GFP monoclonal 771

antibody (Cat#11814460001, lot No.11751700; Roche, Switzerland) at a 1:2,000 dilution 772

and ‘One Step Western Kit HRP (Mouse)’ (CW2030M, lot No. 03803/40449; CoWin 773

Biosciences, China) at 1:200 dilution. In addition, abundances of SMXL2-GFP in the root, 774

Page 29: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

29

hypocotyl and cotyledons of 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0 seedlings were determined by 775

immunoblotting with mouse anti-GFP monoclonal antibody (Cat#11814460001, lot 776

No.11751700; Roche, Switzerland) at a 1:2,000 dilution and ‘One Step Western Kit HRP 777

(Mouse)’ (CW2030M, lot No. 03803/40449; CoWin Biosciences, China) at 1:200 778

dilution, and endogenous ACTIN levels were determined using mouse anti-Actin 779

monoclonal antibody (M20009L, lot No. 313860; Abmart, China) at a 1:10000 dilution 780

and anti-mouse IgG HRP linked whole Ab (NA931V, lot No. 9761190; GE Healthcare, 781

USA) at 1:10,000 dilution. Signals were then detected using ‘Amersham ECL Select 782

Western Blotting Detection Reagent’ (RPN2235, lot No. 16926118; GE Healthcare, USA) 783

and X-ray film. 784

785

GFP Fluorescence 786

To detect endogenous degradation of SMXL2-GFP, roots of 7-d-old 787

35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0 and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 seedlings were treated with 2 µM 788

GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

in 0.5× MS liquid medium for the time indicated on glass slides, 789

and imaged by confocal laser scanning microscopy at excitation wavelength of 488 nm 790

(FluoView 1000; Olympus, Japan). The same offset and gain settings for GFP detection 791

were used within experiments for each transgenic line. The signal intensities of GFP were 792

quantitatively determined with the FV10-ASW 4.0 viewer 1000 software (Olympus, 793

Japan). To observe the SMXL2-GFP expression profiles in root tips of 794

35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0 and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0 seedlings grown for 5 days under 795

long-day conditions, Z stacks containing 5 focal planes were imaged and collected by 796

confocal laser scanning microscopy at excitation wavelength of 488 nm (FluoView 1000; 797

Olympus, Japan). 798

799

Hypocotyl Measurements 800

For hypocotyl elongation assays, surface-sterilized seeds were sown on 0.5× MS media 801

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30

containing 1.0% (w/v) sucrose, 0.7% (w/v) agar, 100 nM GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, or 802

GR244DO

plus GR24ent-5DS

(100 nM of each chemical). The seeds were stratified in the 803

dark at 4 ºC for 72 h, exposed to white light from fluorescence tube (approximately 60-80 804

μE m−2

s−1

) for 3 h at 21 ºC, transferred to dark for 21 h, and then exposed to continuous 805

red light (approximately 20-30 μE m−2

s−1

) for 4 d at 21 ºC as previously described 806

(Stanga et al., 2013). The lengths of the hypocotyls were measured using ImageJ 807

(http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/). 808

809

Statistical analysis 810

For gene expression analysis, phenotype observation, and GFP fluorescence 811

quantification, statistical analysis was assessed as described in the figure legends. P 812

values were calculated by two-tailed Student’s t-test using Excel 2016 or by two-way 813

ANOVA multiple comparison with a Tukey test using GraphPad Prism 7.00. 814

815

Accession Numbers 816

Sequence data were obtained from the GenBank/EMBL libraries under the following 817

accession numbers: AT5G57710 (SMAX1), AT4G30350 (SMXL2), AT3G52490 (SMXL3), 818

AT4G29920 (SMXL4), AT5G57130 (SMXL5), AT1G07200 (SMXL6), AT2G29970 819

(SMXL7), AT2G40130 (SMXL8), AT3G03990 (AtD14), AT4G37170 (KAI2), AT2G26170 820

(MAX1), AT2G42620 (MAX2), AT4G32810 (MAX4), AT3G24420 (DLK2), AT1G31350 821

(KUF1), and AT3G18780 (ACT2). 822

823

Supplemental Data 824

Supplemental Figure 1. Expression of SMXL gene family members shows no response 825

to KAR1 treatment. 826

Supplemental Figure 2. GR24ent-5DS

induces interaction between KAI2 and MAX2 in 827

vivo. 828

Page 31: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

31

Supplemental Figure 3. Ubiquitination of SMXL2 after KAR1 or rac-GR24 treatment of 829

protoplasts. 830

Supplemental Figure 4. GFP fluorescence signals in 35S:SMXL2-GFP and 831

35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgenic lines. 832

Supplemental Figure 5. Alignment of Arabidopsis SMXL family proteins. 833

Supplemental Figure 6. Diagram showing domain structure of SMXL2 and the amino 834

acid changes in SMXL2D protein. 835

Supplemental Figure 7. SMXL2-GFP abundance in the hypocotyl of 35S:SMXL2-GFP 836

seedlings. 837

Supplemental Figure 8. SMXL2 has little effect on shoot branching. 838

Supplemental Table 1. Primers used in this study. 839

Supplemental Data Set 1. Statistical analysis data. 840

841

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 842

We thank Dr. Mark Waters at University of Western Australia and Dr. Daoxin Xie at 843

Tsinghua University for providing the kai2-2 mutant, Dr. Ruifeng Yao at Hunan 844

University for providing the d14-1 kai2-2 mutant, Dr. David Nelson at University of 845

California, Riverside and Dr. Mark Waters at University of Western Australia for 846

providing smax1-2, smxl2-1 and smax1-2 smxl2-1 mutants, and Dr. Ottoline Leyser at 847

Cambridge University for providing max1-1 and max4-5 mutants. This work was 848

supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31788103, 31600221, 849

31661143025), the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship 850

Initiative (2018VBA0025), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese 851

Academy of Sciences (2019099). 852

853

Page 32: Strigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit ... · 134 . signaling, SLs interact with the active-site pocket of D14 which can lead to nucleophilic . 135 . attack by the active-site

32

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS 854

L.W., B.W. and Q.X. designed and performed experiments; H.Y., H.M., X.L., J.Y., J.C. 855

Q.X., and Y.W. contributed to some of the experiments. B.W., G.X., and J.L. designed 856

research, conceived and supervised the project. B.W., L.W., S.M.S. and J.L. analyzed the 857

data and wrote the paper. All authors commented on the manuscript. 858

859

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43

Figure 1. Expression of SMXL family genes upon GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment. 1151

Expression of SMXL gene family members in 10-day-old seedlings of wild type (Col-0), 1152

d14-1 and kai2-2 treated with 5 μM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

for 4 h. Expression values 1153

are determined relative to ACTIN2. Values are means ± SD. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ns, no 1154

significance (n = 3, two-tailed Student’s t-test, three independent experiments; 1155

Supplemental Data set 1). 1156

1157

Figure 2. GR244DO

induces interaction between D14 and SMXL2 in vivo. 1158

(A) Association of HA-D14 with GFP-SMAX1, GFP-SMXL2, GFP-SMXL5, and 1159

GFP-SMXL6 revealed by Co-IP assay in wild-type (Col-0) protoplasts in the absence or 1160

presence of 100 µM GR244DO

. 1161

(B) Interaction between HA-D14 and GFP-SMXL2 revealed by Co-IP assay in wild-type 1162

(Col-0) protoplasts in the absence or presence of 100 µM KAR1, GR24ent-5DS

, GR245DS

, 1163

or GR244DO

. 1164

(C) Interaction between HA-D14 and GFP-SMXL2 revealed by Co-IP assay in wild-type 1165

(Col-0) protoplasts in the presence of 0, 50, 100, and 150 µM GR244DO

. 1166

The HA-D14 recombinant protein was detected with anti-HA monoclonal antibody; the 1167

GFP-SMAX1, GFP-SMXL2, GFP-SMXL5, GFP-SMXL6 fusion proteins and GFP were 1168

detected with anti-GFP monoclonal antibody. All experiments were repeated at least three 1169

times with similar results. 1170

1171

Figure 3. GR24ent-5DS

induces interaction between KAI2 and SMXL2 in vivo. 1172

(A) Association of HA-KAI2 with GFP-SMAX1, GFP-SMXL2, GFP-SMXL5, and 1173

GFP-SMXL6 revealed by Co-IP assay in wild-type (Col-0) protoplasts in the absence or 1174

presence of 100 µM GR24ent-5DS

. 1175

(B) Interaction between HA-KAI2 and GFP-SMXL2 revealed by Co-IP assay in 1176

wild-type (Col-0) protoplasts in the absence or presence of 100 µM KAR1, GR24ent-5DS

, 1177

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44

GR245DS

, or GR244DO

. 1178

The HA-KAI2 recombinant protein was detected with anti-HA monoclonal antibody; the 1179

GFP-SMAX1, GFP-SMXL2, GFP-SMXL5, GFP-SMXL6 fusion proteins and GFP were 1180

detected with anti-GFP monoclonal antibody. All experiments were repeated at least three 1181

times with similar results. 1182

1183

Figure 4. SMXL2 undergoes ubiquitination after GR244DO

, KAR1 or GR24ent-5DS

1184

treatment. 1185

(A) Ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP proteins in 7-day-old 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic 1186

plants after GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

or KAR1 treatment. Seedlings were treated with 50 µM 1187

MG132 for 1 h, then with 2 µM GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

or KAR1 for 20 min in 0.5× MS 1188

liquid medium. 1189

(B) Ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP proteins in 7-day-old 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic 1190

plants with 50 µM MG132 for 1 h, then with 2 µM KAR1 for 2 h or 2 µM GR244DO

for 1191

20 min in 0.5× MS liquid medium. Mock treatments were 2 h. 1192

(C) Ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP in wild-type, d14-1 and kai2-2 Arabidopsis seedlings 1193

containing 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgene. Seedlings were treated after 7 days growth with 1194

50 µM MG132 for 1 h, then with 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

for 20 min in 0.5× MS 1195

liquid medium. 1196

(D) Ubiquitination of GFP-SMXL2 in protoplasts made from wild-type and d14-1 kai2-2 1197

seedlings. 1198

(E) Ubiquitination of GFP-SMXL6 in protoplasts made from wild-type, d14-1 and kai2-2 1199

seedlings. 1200

In (D) and (E), protoplasts were transformed with 35S:GFP-SMXL2 or 35S:GFP-SMXL6 1201

plasmid, incubated overnight for protein synthesis, then pretreated with 50 µM MG132 1202

for 1 h and treated with 100 µM GR244DO

and GR24ent-5DS

for 1.5 h. 1203

Proteins were detected by immunoblotting with anti-ubiquitin (Ubi) polyclonal antibody 1204

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45

or anti-GFP monoclonal antibody. All experiments were repeated at least three times with 1205

similar results. 1206

1207

Figure 5. SMXL2 undergoes degradation after GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

or KAR1 treatment. 1208

(A) Degradation of SMXL2-GFP proteins in 7-day-old 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic 1209

plants after 2 µM GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

or KAR1 treatment for the time indicated. 1210

(B) GFP fluorescence in single plane of fixed focus in root tips of 7-day-old 1211

35S:SMXL2-GFP transgenic plants treated with 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

in 0.5× 1212

MS liquid medium for the time indicated. Bar, 30 μm. 1213

(C) Relative abundance of SMXL2-GFP in root tips was determined by fluorescence 1214

measurement at the time indicated after 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment, with the 1215

zero-time signal set as 1.00. Values are means ± SD. Fluorescence signal after GR244DO

1216

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment was compared with that of mock treatment at indicated time. 1217

**P < 0.01 (n = 12 nuclei, two-tailed Student’s t-test; Supplemental Data set 1). 1218

(D) Degradation of SMXL2-GFP proteins in wild-type (Col-0), d14-1 and kai2-2 1219

Arabidopsis seedlings containing 35S:SMXL2-GFP transgene. Seedlings were treated 1220

after 7 days growth with 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

in 0.5× MS liquid medium for the 1221

time indicated. 1222

In (A and D), proteins were detected by immunoblotting with anti-GFP monoclonal 1223

antibody. Relative abundances of SMXL2-GFP were determined by densitometry and 1224

normalized to loadings determined by Ponceau staining (red), with the zero-time signal 1225

set as 1.00. All experiments were repeated at least three times with similar results. 1226

1227

Figure 6. Ubiquitination and degradation of SMXL2-GFP depends on the RGKT motif. 1228

(A to C) Ubiquitination of SMXL2-GFP and SMXL2D-GFP in wild-type seedlings 1229

containing 35S:SMXL2-GFP or 35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgene. Seedlings were treated 1230

after 7 d growth with 50 µM MG132 for 1 h, then with 2 µM GR244DO

for 20 min (A), 2 1231

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46

µM GR24ent-5DS

for 20 min (B), or 10 µM KAR1 for 1 h (C) in 0.5× MS liquid medium. 1232

(D and E) Levels of SMXL2-GFP and SMXL2D-GFP proteins in wild-type seedlings 1233

containing 35S:SMXL2-GFP or 35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgene. Seedlings were treated 1234

after 7 days growth with 2 µM GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

(D), or 10 µM KAR1 (E) in 0.5× 1235

MS liquid medium for the time indicated. 1236

(F) GFP fluorescence in single plane of fixed focus in root tip of 7-day-old 1237

35S:SMXL2D-GFP transgenic plants treated with 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

in 0.5× 1238

MS liquid medium for the time indicated. Bar, 30 μm. 1239

(G) Relative abundance of SMXL2D-GFP in root tips was determined by fluorescence 1240

measurements at the time indicated after 2 µM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment, with 1241

the zero-time signal set as 1.00. Values are means ± SD. Fluorescence signal after 1242

GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

treatment was compared with that of mock treatment at indicated 1243

time. ns, no significance (n = 12 nuclei, two-tailed Student’s t-test; Supplemental Data set 1244

1). 1245

In (A to C), proteins were detected by immunoblotting with anti-ubiquitin (Ubi) 1246

polyclonal antibody or anti-GFP monoclonal antibody. In (D and E), proteins were 1247

detected by immunoblotting with anti-GFP monoclonal antibody. Relative abundances of 1248

SMXL2-GFP were determined by densitometry and normalized to loadings determined 1249

by Ponceau staining (red), with the zero-time signal set as 1.00. All experiments were 1250

repeated at least three times with similar results. 1251

1252

Figure 7. Hypocotyl response to GR244DO

, GR24ent-5DS

, or GR244DO

plus GR24ent-5DS

. 1253

(A) Seedlings of Col-0 (wild type), smax1, smxl2, smax1 smxl2, and smxl6,7,8 triple 1254

mutant were grown on 0.5× MS media containing 100 nM of each compound for 4 d 1255

under continuous red light at 21 ºC. Values are means ± SD. Different letters indicate 1256

significant difference P < 0.05 (n = 20 different plants, Two-way ANOVA multiple 1257

comparison, Tukey test, three independent experiments; Supplemental Data set 1). 1258

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47

(B) Seedlings of Col-0 (wild type), 35S:SMXL2D-GFP/Col-0, and 1259

35S:SMXL6D-GFP/Col-0 were grown on 0.5× MS media containing 100 nM of each 1260

compound for 4 d under continuous red light at 21 ºC. Values are means ± SD. Different 1261

letters indicate significant difference P < 0.05 (n = 15 different plants, Two-way ANOVA 1262

multiple comparison, Tukey test, three independent experiments; Supplemental Data set 1263

1). 1264

(C) Seedlings of 35S:SMXL2-GFP/Col-0, 35S:SMXL2-GFP/d14-1, and 1265

35S:SMXL2-GFP/kai2-2 were grown on 0.5× MS media containing 100 nM of each 1266

compound for 4 d under continuous red light at 21 ºC. Values are means ± SD. Different 1267

letters indicate significant difference P < 0.05 (n = 15 different plants, Two-way ANOVA 1268

multiple comparison, Tukey test, three independent experiments; Supplemental Data set 1269

1). 1270

1271

Figure 8. SMXL2 is required for induction of DLK2 and KUF1 by signaling of SL and 1272

KAR in seedlings. 1273

(A) Relative expression of DLK2, KUF1 and MAX4 in 10-day-old seedlings of Col-0 1274

(wild type), smxl6,7,8 triple mutant, smax1, smxl2, and smax1 smxl2 double mutant. 1275

(B) Relative expression of DLK2 and KUF1 in 10-day-old seedlings of Col-0 (wild type), 1276

max1, and max4. 1277

(C) Relative expression of DLK2 and KUF1 in 10-day-old seedlings of Col-0 (wild type), 1278

smxl6,7,8 triple mutant, smax1, smxl2, and smax1 smxl2 double mutant treated with 1 μM 1279

GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

for 4 h. 1280

(D) Relative expression of DLK2 and KUF1 in 10-day-old seedlings of Col-0 (wild type), 1281

35S:SMXL2-GFP and 35S:SMXL2D-GFP treated with 1 μM GR244DO

or GR24ent-5DS

for 1282

4 h. 1283

(E) Schematic representation of SL and KAR-regulated gene expression mediated by 1284

SMAX1 and SMXL2. 1285

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48

In (A to D), expression values are determined relative to ACTIN2. Values are means ± SD. 1286

*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ns, no significance (n = 3, two-tailed Student’s t-test, three 1287

independent experiments; Supplemental Data set 1). 1288

1289

Figure 9. Roles of SMXLs in the control of Arabidopsis development by KAR and SL 1290

signaling. 1291

KARs trigger association of KAI2 with SMXL2 and MAX2, leading to ubiquitination 1292

and degradation of SMXL2. KARs also trigger interaction between KAI2 and SMAX1 1293

and are proposed to trigger ubiquitination and degradation of SMAX1. SLs induce 1294

formation of the D14-MAX2-SMXL2, D14-MAX2-SMXL6, D14-MAX2-SMXL7, and 1295

D14-MAX2-SMXL8 complexes, and subsequent ubiquitination and degradation of 1296

SMXL2, SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8. Degradation of SMXL2 represses hypocotyl 1297

elongation and induces the expression of DLK2 and KUF1, and the same functions are 1298

proposed for SMAX1. By contrast, degradation of SMXL6, SMXL7, and SMXL8 1299

represses shoot branching and MAX4 expression. SMXL2 is therefore a common target of 1300

proteolysis in SL and KAR signaling and functions to regulate hypocotyl elongation and 1301

gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana. U, ubiquitin. 1302

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DOI 10.1105/tpc.20.00140; originally published online April 30, 2020;Plant Cell

Wang, Steven M Smith, Jiayang Li, Guosheng Xiong and Bing WangLei Wang, Qian Xu, Hong Yu, Haiyan Ma, Xiaoqiang Li, Jun Yang, Jinfang Chu, Qi Xie, Yonghong

Regulate Hypocotyl Elongation in Arabidopsis thalianaStrigolactone and Karrikin Signaling Pathways Elicit Ubiquitination and Proteolysis of SMXL2 to

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