Characteristics of cambium stem cells responsible for plant thickening growth revealed

April 28, 2025

Discovery of a new function of the plant hormone strigolactone

An international research group, including researchers from the RIKEN CSRS, has developed an efficient method for single-cell transcriptome analysis from plant tissues and discovered that strigolactone, a type of plant hormone, regulates the formation of xylem vessels, which are the pathways for water transport. This research deepens our understanding of how cambium stem cells facilitate thickening growth while forming xylem vessels and is expected to contribute to the development of crops with enhanced drought resistance.

How cambium stem cells are regulated has been unclear because of the difficulties in isolation and analysis of these stem cells specifically. In this study, using Arabidopsis thaliana, the collaborative research group successfully revealed gene expression changes at the single-cell level during the thickening growth process in the cambium. As a result, they discovered that cambium stem cells have a specific gene expression pattern. The study also found that the signal of strigolactones changes during the secondary growth and that this signaling controls the formation of xylem vessels. Moreover, it was determined that the number of xylem vessels contributes to the plant's drought resistance. Since controlling the activity of strigolactones can alter a plant’s drought resistance, this research is expected to contribute to the development of crops that are more resilient to environmental changes.

 

Original article

Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59072-y

J. Zhao, D. Shi, K. Kaeufer, C. Song, D. Both, A. L. Thier, H. Cao, L. Lassen, X. Xu, Y. Hamamura, L. Luzzietti, T. Bennett, K. Kaufmann, T. Greb,

"Strigolactones optimise plant water usage by modulating vessel formation".

Contact

Dongbo Shi
RIKEN ECL Unit Leader
Cambial Stem Cell System RIKEN ECL Research Unit