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A mutation of casein kinase 2 α4 subunit affects multiple developmental processes in Arabidopsis

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Arabidopsis CK2 α4 subunit regulates the primary root and hypocotyl elongation, lateral root formation, cotyledon expansion, rosette leaf initiation and growth, flowering, and anthocyanin biosynthesis.

Abstract

Casein kinase 2 (CK2) is a conserved tetrameric kinase composed of two α and two β subunits. The inhibition of CK2 activity usually results in severe developmental deficiency. Four genes (CKA1–CKA4) encode CK2 α subunit in Arabidopsis. Single mutations of CKA1, CKA2, and CKA3 do not affect the normal growth of Arabidopsis, while the cka1 cka2 cka3 triple mutants are defective in cotyledon and hypocotyl growth, lateral root development, and flowering. The inhibition of CKA4 expression in cka1 cka2 cka3 background further reduces the number of lateral roots and delays the flowering time. Here, we report the characterization of a novel knockout mutant of CKA4, which exhibits various developmental defects including reduced primary root and hypocotyl elongation, increased lateral root density, delayed cotyledon expansion, retarded rosette leaf initiation and growth, and late flowering. The examination of the cellular basis for abnormal root development of this mutant revealed reduced root meristem cells with enhanced RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED (RBR) expression that promotes cell differentiation in root meristem. Moreover, this cka4-2 mutant accumulates higher anthocyanin in the aerial part and shows an increased expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes, suggesting a novel role of CK2 in modulating anthocyanin biosynthesis. In addition, the complementation test using primary root elongation assay as a sample confirms that the changed phenotypes of this cka4-2 mutant are due to the lack of CKA4. Taken together, this study reveals an essential role of CK2 α4 subunit in multiple developmental processes in Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (14KJB180003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300652), and the Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (BK20140443).

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    1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Marine Pharmaceutical Compound Screening, Huaihai Institute of Technology, Lianyungang, 222005, China

      Wen-Shu Wang, Jiang Zhu, Kun-Xiao Zhang, Ying-Tang Lü & Heng-Hao Xu

    2. Co-Innovation Center of Jiangsu Marine Bio-industry Technology, Lianyungang, 222005, China

      Heng-Hao Xu

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    1. Wen-Shu Wang
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    2. Jiang Zhu
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    Communicated by Y.-T. Lu.

    W.-S. Wang and J. Zhu contributed equally to the work.

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    Wang, WS., Zhu, J., Zhang, KX. et al. A mutation of casein kinase 2 α4 subunit affects multiple developmental processes in Arabidopsis . Plant Cell Rep 35, 1071–1080 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-016-1939-5

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