Cortical microtubule remodelling during strigolactone- and light-mediated growth inhibition of Arabidopsis hypocotyls

Strigolactones are phytohormones involved in shoot branching and hypocotyl elongation. The latter phenomenon was addressed herein by the exogenous application of a synthetic strigolactone GR24 and an inhibitor of strigolactone biosynthesis TIS108 on hypocotyls of wild type Arabidopsis and a strigolactone signalling mutant max2-1 (more axillary growth 2-1). Owing to the interdependence between light and strigolactone signalling, the present work was extended to seedling cultivation under a standard light/dark regime, or under continuous darkness. Given the essential role of the cortical microtubules in cell elongation, their organization and dynamics were characterized under the conditions of altered strigolactone signalling using fluorescence microscopy methods with different spatiotemporal capacities such as confocal laser scanning microscopy and structured illumination microscopy. It was found that the strigolactone-dependent inhibition of hypocotyl elongation correlated with changes in cortical microtubule organization and dynamics, visualized in living wild type and max2-1 seedlings stably expressing genetically-encoded fluorescent molecular markers for microtubules. Quantitative analysis of microscopic datasets revealed that chemical and/or genetic manipulation of strigolactone signalling affected microtubule remodelling, especially under light conditions. The application of GR24 and TIS108 in dark conditions partially alleviated cytoskeletal rearrangement, suggesting a new mechanistic connection between the cytoskeletal behaviour and the light-dependence of strigolactone signalling. HighlightStrigolactones regulate organization and dynamics of cortical microtubules in hypocotyl cells, which contributes to the light-mediated inhibition of hypocotyl growth in Arabidopsis seedlings.