Nitric Oxide controls shoot meristem activity controlling DNA methylation in Arabidopsis thaliana (RNA-Seq)

Despite the importance of Nitric oxide (NO) in both plant and animal development, the regulatory and mechanism of NO function remain elusive. Here, we show that NO promotes Arabidopsis shoot stem cell differentiation via the RNA directed DNA Methylation (RdDM) pathway. Knocking out of the components of the RdDM pathway causes meristematic defects, and at least in part could block the stem cell and niche-specific genes responding to the NO signaling. Moreover, the homeobox WUSCHEL protein, known to control stem cell pool, has been found to interact with the ARGONAUTE protein, thus mediating NO signaling in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) is crucial for the stem cell fate. Our results reveal an important mechanism that NO is key to stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Overall design: Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing