Gibberellins Promote Trichome Formation by Up-Regulating GLABROUS1 in Arabidopsis

Trichome development is dependent on gibberellin (GA) signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Using the GA-deficient mutant ga1–3, the GA-response mutant spy-5, and uniconazol (a GA-biosynthesis inhibitor), we show that the GA level response correlates positively with both trichome number and trichome branch number. Two genes, GL1 and TTG, are required for trichome initiation. In ga1–3, coexpression of GL1 and R, the maize TTG functional homolog, under control of the constitutive 35S promoter, restored trichome development, whereas overexpression of neither GL1 nor R alone was sufficient to significantly suppress the glabrous phenotype. We next focused on GL1 regulation by GAs. In the double mutant the gl1–1 glabrous phenotype is epistatic to the spy-5 phenotype, suggesting that GL1 acts downstream of the GA signal transduction pathway. The activity of a β-glucuronidase reporter gene driven by the GL1 promoter was decreased in the wild type grown on uniconazol and showed a clear GA-dependent activation in ga1–3. Finally, quantification of GL1 transcript levels by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction demonstrated that relative to wild type, ga1–3 plants contained less transcript. These data support the hypothesis that GAs induce trichome development through up-regulation of GL1 and possibly TTG genes.