Aurélien Boisson-Dernier

• PhD
• Research Director at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)

Plant cells are surrounded by an extracellular cell wall that shields them from their abiotic and biotic environment. To coordinate their growth with their cell wall status, plant cells have developed cell wall integrity (CWI) mechanisms, at the center of which lies the transmembrane Malectin-like receptor kinase FERONIA (FER). FER controls a myria...

In recent years, the rapid alkalinization factor (RALF) family of cysteine-rich peptides has been reported to be crucial for several plant signaling mechanisms, including cell growth, plant immunity and fertilization. RALF4 and RALF19 (RALF4/19) pollen peptides redundantly regulate the pollen tube integrity and growth through binding to their recep...

Even though stable genomic transformation of sporelings and thalli of Marchantia polymorpha is straightforward and efficient, numerous problems can arise during critical phases of the process such as efficient spore production, poor selection capacity of antibiotics or low transformation efficiency. It is therefore also desirable to establish quick...

Plant cell growth requires the coordinated expansion of the protoplast and the cell wall, which is controlled by an elaborate system of cell wall integrity (CWI) sensors linking the different cellular compartments. LRR-eXtensins (LRXs) are cell wall-attached extracellular regulators of cell wall formation and high-affinity binding sites for RALF (R...

Even though stable genomic transformation of sporelings and thalli of Marchantia polymorpha is comparatively straightforward and efficient, numerous problems can arise during critical phases of the process such as efficient spore production, poor selection capacity of antibiotics or low transformation efficiency. It is therefore also desirable to e...

Rooting cells and pollen tubes-key adaptative innovations that evolved during the colonization and subsequent radiation of plants on land-expand by tip growth. Tip growth relies on a tight coordination between the protoplast growth and the synthesis/remodeling of the external cell wall. In root hairs and pollen tubes of the seed plant Arabidopsis t...

Plant cell growth requires the coordinated expansion of the protoplast and the cell wall that confers mechanical stability to the cell. An elaborate system of cell wall integrity sensors monitors cell wall structures and conveys information on cell wall composition and growth factors to the cell. LRR-extensins (LRXs) are cell wall-attached extracel...

Rooting cells and pollen tubes - key adaptative innovations that evolved during the colonization and subsequent radiation of plants on land - expand by tip-growth. Tip-growth relies on a tight coordination between the protoplast growth and the synthesis/remodeling of the external cell wall. In root hairs and pollen tubes of the seed plant Arabidops...

Fast tip-growing plant cells such as pollen tubes (PTs) and root hairs (RHs) require a robust coordination between their internal growth machinery and modifications of their extracellular rigid, yet extensible cell wall (CW). Part of this essential coordination is governed by members of the Catharanthus roseus receptor-like kinase1-like (CrRLK1L) s...

Plant cells are surrounded by cell walls protecting them from a myriad of environmental challenges. For successful habitat adaptation, extracellular cues are perceived at the cell wall and relayed to downstream signaling constituents to mediate dynamic cell wall remodeling and adapted intracellular responses. Plant malectin-like receptor kinases, a...

Timing a switch in tissue integrity In plants, sperm cells travel through the pollen tube as it grows toward the ovule. Successful fertilization depends on the pollen tube rupturing to release the sperm cells (see the Perspective by Stegmann and Zipfel). Ge et al. and Mecchia et al. elucidated the intercellular cross-talk that maintains pollen tube...

Plants have evolved two tiers of immune receptors to detect infections: cell surface-resident pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that sense microbial signatures and intracellular nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins that recognize pathogen effectors. How PRRs and NLRs interconnect and activate the specific and overlapping...

While cytosolic calcium (Ca²⁺) plays a central role in a myriad of signaling pathways as a secondary messenger, how dynamic changes of cytosolic calcium relate to cell growth control remains poorly understood. The engineering and continuous improvements of genetically encoded calcium sensors such as the Yellow Cameleon (YC) sensors combined with ad...

Significance Plant cells constantly survey their environment to fine-tune their internal processes. Plant receptor-like kinases (RLKs) of the Catharanthus roseus RLK1-like ( Cr RLK1L) subfamily have been implicated in many signaling processes, including the coordination of the intracellular growth machinery with the performance of the extracellular...

Pollen tube (PT) reception in flowering plants describes the crosstalk between the male and female gametophytes upon PT arrival at the synergid cells of the ovule. It leads to PT growth arrest, rupture, and sperm cell release, and is thus essential to ensure double fertilization. Here, we describe TURAN (TUN) and EVAN (EVN), two novel members of th...

The invention provides compositions and methods for manipulating the exchange of water and/or carbon dioxide (CO2) through plant stomata by controlling CO2 sensor genes. The invention provides compositions and methods for enhancing or optimizing biomass accumulation in a plant. The invention provides compositions and methods for for opening or clos...

It has become increasingly apparent that the extracellular matrix (ECM), which in plants corresponds to the cell wall, can influence intracellular activities in ways that go far beyond their supposedly passive mechanical support. In plants, growing cells use mechanisms sensing cell wall integrity to coordinate cell wall performance with the interna...

Plant cell expansion is controlled by a fine-tuned balance between intracellular turgor pressure, cell wall loosening, and cell wall biosynthesis. To understand these processes, it is important to gain in-depth knowledge of cell wall mechanics. Pollen tubes are tip-growing cells that provide an ideal system to study mechanical properties at the sin...

Successful pollination depends on cell-cell communication and rapid cellular responses. In Arabidopsis, the pollen grain lands on a dry stigma, where it hydrates, germinates and grows a pollen tube that delivers the sperm cells to the female gametophyte to effect double fertilization. Various studies have emphasized that a mature, dehydrated pollen...

In plants, organ formation and cell elongation require the constant adjustment of the dynamic and adaptable cell wall in response to environmental cues as well as internal regulators, such as light, mechanical stresses, pathogen attacks, phytohormones, and other signaling molecules. The molecular mechanisms that perceive these cues and translate th...

The continuing rise in atmospheric CO2 causes stomatal pores in leaves to close and thus globally affects CO2 influx into plants, water use efficiency and leaf heat stress. However, the CO2-binding proteins that control this response remain unknown. Moreover, which cell type responds to CO2, mesophyll or guard cells, and whether photosynthesis medi...

The precise delivery of male to female gametes during reproduction in eukaryotes requires complex signal exchanges and a flawless communication between male and female tissues. In angiosperms, molecular mechanisms have recently been revealed that are crucial for the dialog between male (pollen tube) and female gametophytes required for successful s...

In eukaryotes, fertilization relies on complex and specialized mechanisms that achieve the precise delivery of the male gamete to the female gamete and their subsequent union [1-4]. In flowering plants, the haploid male gametophyte or pollen tube (PT) [5] carries two nonmotile sperm cells to the female gametophyte (FG) or embryo sac [6] during a lo...

The ability to transform M. truncatula via Agrobacterium tumefaciens was one of the original criteria used to select this legume as a model species (Barker et al., 1990). The Agrobacterium T-DNA transfer machinery generates simple, well-characterized insertion profiles consisting of a small number of T-DNA copies (Tinland, 1996). Conventional A. tu...

Rhizobium Nod factors (NFs) are specific lipochitooligosaccharides that activate host legume signaling pathways essential for initiating the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic association. This study describes the characterization of cis-regulatory elements and trans-interacting factors that regulate NF-dependent and epidermis-specific gene transcription in...

Protein phosphatases of the 2C family (PP2C) function in the regulation of several signaling pathways from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the HAB1 PP2C is a negative regulator of the stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. Here, we show that plants expressing a mutant form of HAB1 in which Gly246 was mutated to Asp (G246D...

To identify new loci in abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, we screened a library of 35ScDNA Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana)-expressing lines for ABA-insensitive mutants in seed germination assays. One of the identified mutants germinated on 2.5 microm ABA, a concentration that completely inhibits wild-type seed germination. Backcrosses and F2 analys...

The MtENOD11 gene from the model legume Medicago truncatula is transcriptionally activated both in response to Sinorhizobium meliloti Nod factors and throughout infection of root tissues by the nitrogen-fixing microsymbiont. To identify the regulatory sequences involved in symbiosis-related MtENOD11 expression, a series of promoter deletions drivin...

Among the >200 members of the leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase family in Arabidopsis thaliana, only a few have been functionally characterized. Here, we report a critical function in anther development for the SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS RECEPTOR KINASE1 (SERK1) and SERK2 genes. Both SERK1 and SERK2 are expressed widely in locules until stage 6 anther...

This article describes an efficient procedure to study Nod factor-induced gene expression in root hairs of the model legume Medicago truncatula. By developing an improved method of fracturing frozen root hairs, it has been possible to obtain a highly purified root hair fraction from M. truncatula seedlings yielding sufficient RNA for real-time quan...

Medicago truncatula, a diploid autogamous legume, is currently being developed as a model plant for the study of root endosymbiotic associations, including nodulation and mycorrhizal colonization. An important requirement for such a plant is the possibility of rapidly introducing and analyzing chimeric gene constructs in root tissues. For this reas...