Abstract
Postembryonic development in plants is dependent on the activity of shoot and root meristems. CLAVATA3 (CLV3), a putative peptide ligand of Arabidopsis thaliana, regulates the stem cell population in the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Previously, we have reported that functional CLV3 encodes dodecapeptides with two hydroxyproline residues, and chemically synthesized CLV3 peptide also functions in in vitro bioassay systems, resulting in reduced SAM size (Kondo et al.2006). In order to confirm that the synthetic peptide acts through endogenous CLV pathway, we analyzed SAM defective phenotype of clv mutants in the presence of CLV3 peptide. As a result, clv1 and clv2 plants, but not clv3 plants, showed resistance to SAM defect caused by CLV3 peptide. This suggests that synthetic CLV3 peptide acts through endogenous CLV1/CLV2 receptor system.
