Reactive Oxygen Species Tune Root Tropic Responses

The default growth pattern of primary roots of land plants is directed by gravity. However, roots possess the ability to sense and respond directionally to other chemical and physical stimuli, separately and in combination. Therefore, these root tropic responses must be antagonistic to gravitropism. The role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in gravitropism of maize and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) roots has been previously described. However, which cellular signals underlie the integration of the different environmental stimuli, which lead to an appropriate root tropic response, is currently unknown. In gravity-responding roots, we observed, by applying the ROS-sensitive fluorescent dye dihydrorhodamine-123 and confocal microscopy, a transient asymmetric ROS distribution, higher at the concave side of the root. The asymmetry, detected at the distal elongation zone, was built in the first 2 h of the gravitropic response and dissipated after another 2 h. In contrast, hydrotropically responding roots show no transient asymmetric distribution of ROS. Decreasing ROS levels by applying the antioxidant ascorbate, or the ROS-generation inhibitor diphenylene iodonium attenuated gravitropism while enhancing hydrotropism. Arabidopsis mutants deficient in Ascorbate Peroxidase 1 showed attenuated hydrotropic root bending. Mutants of the root-expressed NADPH oxidase RBOH C, but not rbohD, showed enhanced hydrotropism and less ROS in their roots apices (tested in tissue extracts with Amplex Red). Finally, hydrostimulation prior to gravistimulation attenuated the gravistimulated asymmetric ROS and auxin signals that are required for gravity-directed curvature. We suggest that ROS, presumably H₂O₂, function in tuning root tropic responses by promoting gravitropism and negatively regulating hydrotropism.Plants evolved the ability to sense and respond to various environmental stimuli in an integrated fashion. Due to their sessile nature, they respond to directional stimuli such as light, gravity, touch, and moisture by directional organ growth (curvature), a phenomenon termed tropism. Experiments on coleoptiles conducted by Darwin in the 1880s revealed that in phototropism, the light stimulus is perceived by the tip, from which a signal is transmitted to the growing part (Darwin and Darwin, 1880). Darwin postulated that in a similar manner, the root tip perceives stimuli from the environment, including gravity and moisture, processes them, and directs the growth movement, acting like “the brain of one of the lower animals” (Darwin and Darwin, 1880). The transmitted signal in phototropism and gravitropism was later found to be a phytohormone, and its redistribution on opposite sides of the root or shoot was hypothesized to promote differential growth and bending of the organ (Went, 1926; Cholodny, 1927). Over the years, the phytohormone was characterized as indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, auxin; Kögl et al., 1934; Thimann, 1935), and the ‘Cholodny-Went’ theory was demonstrated for gravitropism and phototropism (Rashotte et al., 2000; Friml et al., 2002). In addition to auxin, second messengers such as Ca²⁺, pH oscillations, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and abscisic acid (ABA) were shown to play an essential role in gravitropism (Young and Evans, 1994; Fasano et al., 2001; Joo et al., 2001; Ponce et al., 2008). Auxin was shown to induce ROS accumulation during root gravitropism, where the gravitropic bending is ROS dependent (Joo et al., 2001; Peer et al., 2013).ROS such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide were initially considered toxic byproducts of aerobic respiration but currently are known also for their essential role in myriad cellular and physiological processes in animals and plants (Mittler et al., 2011). ROS and antioxidants are essential components of plant cell growth (Foreman et al., 2003), cell cycle control, and shoot apical meristem maintenance (Schippers et al., 2016) and play a crucial role in protein modification and cellular redox homeostasis (Foyer and Noctor, 2005). ROS function as signal molecules by mediating both biotic- (Sagi and Fluhr, 2006; Miller et al., 2009) and abiotic- (Kwak et al., 2003; Sharma and Dietz, 2009) stress responses. Joo et al. (2001) reported a transient increase in intracellular ROS concentrations early in the gravitropic response, at the concave side of maize roots, where auxin concentrations are higher. Indeed, this asymmetric ROS distribution is required for gravitropic bending, since maize roots treated with antioxidants, which act as ROS scavengers, showed reduced gravitropic root bending (Joo et al., 2001). The link between auxin and ROS production was later shown to involve the activation of NADPH oxidase, a major membrane-bound ROS generator, via a PI3K-dependent pathway (Brightman et al., 1988; Joo et al., 2005; Peer et al., 2013). Peer et al. (2013) suggested that in gravitropism, ROS buffer auxin signaling by oxidizing the active auxin IAA to the nonactive and nontransported form, oxIAA.Gravitropic-oriented growth is the default growth program of the plant, with shoots growing upwards and roots downward. However, upon exposure to specific external stimuli, the plant overcomes its gravitropic growth program and bends toward or away from the source of the stimulus. For example, as roots respond to physical obstacles or water deficiency. The ability of roots to direct their growth toward environments of higher water potential was described by Darwin and even earlier and was later defined as hydrotropism (Von Sachs, 1887; Jaffe et al., 1985; Eapen et al., 2005).In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), wild-type seedlings respond to moisture gradients (hydrostimulation) by bending their primary roots toward higher water potential. Upon hydrostimulation, amyloplasts, the starch-containing plastids in root-cap columella cells, which function as part of the gravity sensing system, are degraded within hours and recover upon water replenishment (Takahashi et al., 2003; Ponce et al., 2008; Nakayama et al., 2012). Moreover, mutants with a reduced response to gravity (pgm1) and to auxin (axr1 and axr2) exhibit higher responsiveness to hydrostimulation, manifested as accelerated bending compared to wild-type roots (Takahashi et al., 2002, 2003). Recently, we have shown that hydrotropic root bending does not require auxin redistribution and is accelerated in the presence of auxin polar transport inhibitors and auxin-signaling antagonists (Shkolnik et al., 2016). These results reflect the competition, or interference, between root gravitropism and hydrotropism (Takahashi et al., 2009). However, which cellular signals participate in the integration of the different environmental stimuli that direct root tropic curvature is still poorly understood. Here we sought to assess the potential role of ROS in regulating hydrotropism and gravitropism in Arabidopsis roots.