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Therootmeristem(RM) isafundamental structure that is responsible for postembryonic root growth.TheRMcontainsthequiescent center(QC), stemcells and frequently dividingmeristematic cells, inwhich the timing and the frequency of cell division are tightly regulated. In Arabidopsis thaliana, several gain-of-function analyses have demonstrated that peptide ligands of the CLAVATA3 (CLV3)/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION-RELATED (CLE) family are important for maintaining RM size. Here, we demonstrate that a plant U-box E3 ubiquitin ligase, PUB4, is a novel downstreamcomponent of CLV3/CLE signaling in the RM. Mutations in PUB4 reduced the inhibitory effect of exogenous CLV3/CLE peptide on root cell proliferation and columella stem cell maintenance. Moreover, pub4 mutants grown without exogenous CLV3/CLE peptide exhibited characteristic phenotypes in the RM, such as enhanced root growth, increased number of cortex/endodermis stem cells and decreased number of columella layers. Our phenotypic and gene expression analyses indicated that PUB4 promotes expression of a cell cycle regulatory gene, CYCD6;1, and regulates formative periclinal asymmetric cell divisions in endodermis and cortex/ endodermis initial daughters. These data suggest that PUB4 functions asa global regulator of cell proliferation and the timingof asymmetric cell division that are important for final root architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a plant germinates in the soil, elongation of stem-like organs is enhanced whereas leaf and root growth is inhibited. How these differential growth responses are orchestrated by light and integrated at the organismal level to shape the plant remains to be elucidated. Here, we show that light signals through the master photomorphogenesis repressor COP1 to coordinate root and shoot growth in Arabidopsis. In the shoot, COP1 regulates shoot-to-root auxin transport by controlling the transcription of the auxin efflux carrier gene PIN-FORMED1 (PIN1), thus appropriately tuning shoot-derived auxin levels in the root. This in turn directly influences root elongation and adapts auxin transport and cell proliferation in the root apical meristem by modulating PIN1 and PIN2 intracellular distribution in the root in a COP1-dependent fashion, thus permitting a rapid and precise tuning of root growth to the light environment. Our data identify auxin as a long-distance signal in developmental adaptation to light and illustrate how spatially separated control mechanisms can converge on the same signaling system to coordinate development at the whole plant level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]