Plants provide food and materials used by society, and their productivity depends on maintaining cell wall integrity (CWI) during growth, development, and environmental stress. The CWI maintenance mechanism, involving receptor-like kinases such as THESEUS1 (THE1), has been extensively investigated, yet the transcriptional regulators involved in primary wall metabolism and stress-induced phytohormone production remain unknown. Here, we integrate transcriptomics with functional genetic and physiological assays to identify transcription factors acting in a THE1-dependent/independent manner. These regulators link CWI, hyperosmotic stress, and cell wall damage to primary wall metabolism, lignification, phytohormone production, and root growth. Our findings reveal elements of the transcriptional network that coordinate CWI and primary cell wall formation with adaptive responses, generating insights to enhance crop stress resilience.
Tichá, T., Zwartkruis, S., Engelsdorf, T., Bartosova, Z., Bacete, L., & Hamann, T. (2025). Coping with stress: Transcriptional regulators linking cell wall integrity maintenance with primary-wall metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana. bioRxiv, 2025-12. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.12.693917
