西澳大利亚大学Marina Oliva研究团队的一项最新研究的研究开发出了根细胞系中环境调控的二分法。这一研究成果于2026年10月21日发表在国际顶尖学术期刊《自然》上。

植物发育高度可塑，生长和结构持续受到环境条件的塑造。例如，根会根据局部的水分、养分和土壤条件调整其发育。尽管具有这种可塑性，单个根细胞类型通常被视为基本同质的群体，沿单一发育轨迹推进。在此，研究人员通过单细胞RNA测序和空间转录组图谱表明，大多数拟南芥根细胞谱系轨迹并非沿单一发育轨迹推进，而是呈现出一种刻板的二分拓扑结构。其中一个分支的特征是一种在多种细胞类型中共享的转录程序，该程序富集了与环境响应相关的基因，包括脱落酸（ABA）信号。这种状态在多种细胞类型的一部分细胞中可重复出现，独立于发育谱系，从而揭示了根细胞身份的一个额外层次。它在拟南芥生态型间保守，并在发育身份发生重大扰动时仍持续存在。此外，它在ABA缺陷和ABA不敏感突变体中减少，并在缺水条件下变得更加普遍。总之，这些发现揭示了根细胞身份的一个额外层次，该层次叠加于发育谱系之上，其普遍性受环境条件调节。这些结果揭示了一种此前未被认识的、跨根细胞类型共享的环境相关转录异质性来源。

附：英文原文

Title: An environmentally regulated dichotomy in cell lineages of the root

Author: Oliva, Marina, Stuart, Tim, Tang, Dave, Khan, Adil, Clement, Olivier, Makosa, Dawid, Poppe, Daniel, Pflueger, Jahnvi, Jabbari, Jafar S., Gigante, Scott, Dragwidge, Jonathan Michael, Petterson, Milly, Whelan, James, Lewsey, Mathew G., Lister, Ryan

Issue&Volume: 2026-10-21

Abstract: Plant development is highly plastic, with growth and architecture continuously shaped by environmental conditions. Roots, for instance, adjust their development to local water, nutrient and soil conditions. Despite this plasticity, individual root cell types are generally viewed as largely homogeneous populations that progress along a single developmental trajectory1. Here we show that rather than progressing along a single developmental trajectory, most Arabidopsis root cell lineage trajectories exhibit a stereotyped bifid topology, as revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcript mapping. One branch is characterized by a transcriptional program that is shared across multiple cell types and enriched for genes associated with environmental responses, including abscisic acid (ABA) signalling. This state occurs reproducibly in a subset of cells across multiple cell types, independent of developmental lineage, thereby revealing an additional layer of root cell identity. It is conserved across Arabidopsis ecotypes and persists despite major perturbations in developmental identity. Moreover, it is reduced in ABA-deficient and ABA-insensitive mutants and becomes more prevalent under water-deficit conditions. Together, these findings reveal an additional layer of root cell identity that is superimposed on developmental lineage and its prevalence is modulated by environmental conditions. These results uncover a previously unrecognized source of environment-associated transcriptional heterogeneity shared across root cell types.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11179-y

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11179-y