Growth directions and stiffness across cell layers determine whether tissues stay smooth or buckle
9 affiliations
- 1Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and Section of Plant Biology, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
- 2Institute of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- 3Institute of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Nuclear Agricultural Sciences of Ministry of Agriculture and Zhejiang Province, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 30058, China
- 4Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, ENS de Lyon, UCB Lyon, CNRS, INRAE, INRIA, 69342 Lyon, France
- 5Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Université de Lyon UCBL, INRA, CNRS, 46 Allée d'Italie, 6964 Lyon Cedex 07, France
- 6The John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK
- 7The John Innes Centre, Norwich NR 7UH, UK
- 8LadHyX, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, IP Paris, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France
- 9Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and Section of Plant Biology, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. Electronic address: [email protected]
Abstract
Nature exhibits organs of various shapes and forms, ranging from smooth to undulated morphologies. How cells coordinate their growth to produce smoothly shaped leaves and leaf-like organs such as sepals remains unclear. We identified a mutant, as2-7D, that exhibits ectopic expression of ASYMMETRIC LEAVES 2 (AS2) on the outer epidermis. Our analysis reveals that ectopic AS2 expression causes the outer epidermis of as2-7D sepals to buckle during early stages of sepal development. Buckling is caused by conflicting cell growth directions and unequal tissue stiffness across the epidermal layers. Overexpression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor Kip-related protein 1 (KRP1) in as2-7D aligns the growth directions of the outer epidermal cells along the longitudinal axis, increases the overall stiffness of the outer epidermis, and restores sepal smoothness. Further experiments suggest that buckling promotes the convergence of auxin efflux transporter protein PIN-FORMED 1 (PIN1) to initiate pointed outgrowths. Thus, we show that growth along the longitudinal axis during early developmental stages and comparable stiffness across both epidermal layers of Arabidopsis thaliana sepals are essential for smoothness, as seen in the wild type. Our findings suggest that in addition to molecular cues influencing tissue mechanics, tissue mechanics can also modulate molecular signals, giving rise to well-defined shapes.
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BibTeX
@article{yadav2026growth,
title = {{Growth directions and stiffness across cell layers determine whether tissues stay smooth or buckle}},
author = {Avilash Singh Yadav and Lilan Hong and Patrick M. Klees and Annamária Kiss and Manuel Petit and Xi He and Iselle M. Barrios and Michelle Heeney and Anabella Maria D. Galang and Richard S. Smith and Arezki Boudaoud and Adrienne Roeder},
journal = {Current Biology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.011},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05748314v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Growth directions and stiffness across cell layers determine whether tissues stay smooth or buckle
AU - Avilash Singh Yadav
AU - Lilan Hong
AU - Patrick M. Klees
AU - Annamária Kiss
AU - Manuel Petit
AU - Xi He
AU - Iselle M. Barrios
AU - Michelle Heeney
AU - Anabella Maria D. Galang
AU - Richard S. Smith
AU - Arezki Boudaoud
AU - Adrienne Roeder
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Current Biology
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.011
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05748314v1
AB - Nature exhibits organs of various shapes and forms, ranging from smooth to undulated morphologies. How cells coordinate their growth to produce smoothly shaped leaves and leaf-like organs such as sepals remains unclear. We identified a mutant, as2-7D, that exhibits ectopic expression of ASYMMETRIC LEAVES 2 (AS2) on the outer epidermis. Our analysis reveals that ectopic AS2 expression causes the outer epidermis of as2-7D sepals to buckle during early stages of sepal development. Buckling is caused by conflicting cell growth directions and unequal tissue stiffness across the epidermal layers. Overexpression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor Kip-related protein 1 (KRP1) in as2-7D aligns the growth directions of the outer epidermal cells along the longitudinal axis, increases the overall stiffness of the outer epidermis, and restores sepal smoothness. Further experiments suggest that buckling promotes the convergence of auxin efflux transporter protein PIN-FORMED 1 (PIN1) to initiate pointed outgrowths. Thus, we show that growth along the longitudinal axis during early developmental stages and comparable stiffness across both epidermal layers of Arabidopsis thaliana sepals are essential for smoothness, as seen in the wild type. Our findings suggest that in addition to molecular cues influencing tissue mechanics, tissue mechanics can also modulate molecular signals, giving rise to well-defined shapes.
SN - 0960-9822
SN - 1879-0445
ER -