Functional characterisation of the LRR receptor kinase GmCLAVATA1A

Receptor kinases mediate many signaling events in the animal as well as plants. Among them, CLAVATA1 in Arabidopsis is one of the well-known LRR RK in plants, which functions in CLV pathway and regulate stem cell pool in SAM. AtCLV1 encodes a leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase. CLV loss of function mutants accumulates stem cell in the central zone and exhibits shoot fasciation, enlarged shoot and floral meristem and increased floral organ numbers. In soybean, a model plant in legume, GmCLV1A, and GmNARK are the most closely related to AtCLV1. GmNARK is involved in root nodulation through a regulatory network called autoregulation of nodulation specific to legumes. Loss of function in the GmNARK leads to super- or hyper-nodulation. GmCLV1A was investigated in this study for the first time. A recessive loss of function allele was isolated for GmCLV1A through TILLING. After that, through several experiments, it has been shown that the mutant had a plastic and temperature-sensitive phenotype displaying abnormal leaf development, bifurcated pods, and increased basal branching but normal nodulation. Taken together, our findings indicate that GmCLV1A acts on shoot architecture.