An auxin-inducible f-box protein CEGENDUO negatively regulates auxin-mediated lateral root formation in Arabidopsis

Previously, we characterized 92 Arabidopsis genes (AtSFLs) similar to the S-locus F-box genes involved in S-RNase-based self-incompatibility and found that they likely play diverse roles in Arabidopsis. In this study, we investigated the role of one of these genes, CEGENDUO (CEG, AtSFL61), in the lateral root formation. A T-DNA insertion in CEG led to an increased lateral root production, which was complemented by transformation of the wild-type gene. Its downregulation by RNAi also produced more lateral roots in transformed Arabidopsis plants whereas its overexpression generated less lateral roots compared to wild-type, indicating that CEG acts as a negative regulator for the lateral root formation. It was found that CEG was expressed abundantly in vascular tissues of the primary root, but not in newly formed lateral root primordia and the root meristem, and induced by exogenous auxin NAA (alpha-naphthalene acetic acid). In addition, the ceg mutant was hyposensitive to NAA, IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) and 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), as well as the auxin transport inhibitor TIBA (3,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid), showing that CEG is an auxin-inducible gene. Taken together, our results show that CEG is a novel F-box protein negatively regulating the auxin-mediated lateral root formation in Arabidopsis.