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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Plant Gene Expression Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #425755
Research Project: Developmental and Environmental Control Mechanisms to Enhance Plant Productivity

Location: Plant Gene Expression Center

Title: Engineered CLE peptides promote de novo shoot regeneration in Arabidopsis

Author
item HU, ZIYAO - Shaanxi Normal University
item NIU, JUNPENG - Shaanxi Normal University
item ZHANG, LANGRANG - Shaanxi Normal University
item CHEN, KAIYING - Shaanxi Normal University
item JI, XUAN - Shaanxi Normal University
item DUAN, BOWEN - Shaanxi Normal University
item WANG, MENGPING - Shaanxi Normal University
item Fletcher, Jennifer
item SAWA, SHINICHIRO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item LIU, CHUN-MING - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item WANG, GUODONG - Shaanxi Normal University

Submitted to: Science China Life Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/15/2025
Publication Date: 10/29/2025
Citation: Hu, Z., Niu, J., Zhang, L., Chen, K., Ji, X., Duan, B., Wang, M., Fletcher, J.C., Sawa, S., Liu, C., Wang, G. 2025. Engineered CLE peptides promote de novo shoot regeneration in Arabidopsis. Science China Life Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-025-3091-2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-025-3091-2

Interpretive Summary: Plants have the remarkable ability to regenerate entire shoot systems from small groups of cells called callus. Plant growers and breeders take advantage of this regeneration ability to clonally propagate plant species that either do not form seeds or take many years to mature and flower, speeding up the growing process and making the plants more economical to farm. Our previous research demonstrated that some CLAVATA3 (CLV3)/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION (ESR)-RELATED (CLE) peptides repressed shoot regeneration in the model plant Arabidopsis. Here we identified another set of CLE peptides that are expressed in callus cells and showed that they can control the shoot regeneration process. In addition, we engineered modified CLE peptides and demonstrated that they could promote shoot regeneration without affecting plant growth or fertility. Our research provides a new toolkit of modified plant peptides that can be directly applied by breeders and farmers improve the agricultural bioeconomy.

Technical Abstract: Plant cells display prodigious developmental plasticity, allowing them to dedifferentiate and reprogram into pluripotent cells called callus, which can regenerate new organs in tissue culture (Ikeuchi et al., 2019). Through investigating the single-cell RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data (Zhai and Xu, 2021), we have elucidated that several families of small signaling peptides, such as CLAVATA3 (CLV3)/EMBRYO SURROUNDING REGION (ESR)-RELATED (CLE) peptides, are preferentially activated during the distinct processes of callus formation on an auxin-rich callus induction medium (CIM) (Wang et al., 2022), thereby emphasizing their essential functions during plant regeneration. Recently, we identified CIM-induced CLE1-CLE7 restrict de novo shoot regeneration through the transcriptional repression of WUSCHEL (WUS) (Kang et al., 2022). In addition, we found that the WUS-RELATED HOMEOBOX 14 (WOX14) protein, which is functionally linked with CLE peptides, functions as a key regulator in promoting shoot regeneration (Wang et al., 2023). Nevertheless, the roles of most callus-expressed CLE genes remain enigmatic (Kang et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2022). Both genetic transformation and genome editing for crop improvement are currently challenging due to low regeneration efficiency in many economically important plant species. Therefore, an appealing option is to promote plant regeneration using convenient exogenous peptide application, which, however, requires further investigation.