MpWIP regulates air pore complex development in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.

ABSTRACT: The colonisation of the land by plants was accompanied by the evolution of complex tissues and multicellular structures comprising different cell types as morphological adaptations to the terrestrial environment. Here, we show that the single WIP protein in the early-diverging land plant Marchantia polymorpha L. is required for the development of the multicellular gas exchange structure: the air pore complex. This 16-cell barrel-shaped structure surrounds an opening between epidermal cells that facilitates the exchange of gases between the chamber containing the photosynthetic cells inside the plant and the air outside. MpWIP is expressed in cells of the developing air pore complex and the morphogenesis of the complex is defective in plants with reduced MpWIP function.

SUBMITTER: Jones VA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5399667 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature