{
  "id": 15014596,
  "title": "Local and distal signals drive cell-type-specific leaf responses during shade avoidance",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/local-and-distal-signals-drive-cell-type-specific-leaf-responses",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-16T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.11.757655v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Plants adjust their leaf growth to optimize light exposure within a canopy. To do this, they elongate cells in a unidirectional manner while maintaining differential growth rates between the lower (abaxial) and upper (adaxial) sides of the organ. When exposed to enrichment of Far-Red (FR) light, plants display both these growth responses, depending on the location of FR light reception.\n\nTo understand the regulatory processes behind simultaneous regulation of these growth responses, researchers conducted organ-specific and single-cell RNA sequencing experiments on plants subjected to local or whole-plant FR enrichment. The single-cell transcriptomics revealed that FR light signaling occurs in all cell types, but core components of the shade avoidance pathway are expressed cell type-specifically. These components require signaling across tissues to control growth plasticity.\n\nThe researchers identified that upstream photoreceptor targets, including genes involved in auxin biosynthesis, are expressed in the epidermis of the leaf lamina. Meanwhile, auxin response gene expression in the petiole occurs in deeper tissue layers. They found that a transcriptome involved in differential growth is activated in the abaxial cortex, while a second transcriptome signature associated with unidirectional petiole elongation is induced locally across all cell types.\n\nBased on their findings, the researchers propose that the spatial distinction of transcriptional regulation of gene clusters might be the mechanism by which differential and unidirectional growth can occur simultaneously within the same organ under FR light enrichment.",
  "summary": "Plants reposition and grow their leaves towards optimal light conditions in a canopy. To achieve both horizontal and vertical displacement, plants need to simultaneously elongate their cells unidirectionally and maintain an elongation rate differential between the abaxial and adaxial side of the organ to bend. Exposure to Far-Red (FR) light enrichment can induce both responses, depending on where…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}