{
  "id": 6772831,
  "title": "The miR319-targeted TCP transcription factors play crucial roles in the establishment of Arabidopsis thaliana shoot architecture in response to carbon and nitrogen availability.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/the-mir319-targeted-tcp-transcription-factors-play-crucial-roles-in",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-11T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.08.750043v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Shoot branching in plants, like Arabidopsis thaliana, is a flexible developmental process that enables them to adapt their structure to environmental factors such as carbon and nitrogen availability. While the class II TCP transcription factor BRANCHED1 is known to suppress shoot branching, the role of other TCP factors in this process is not as clear. Researchers have now demonstrated that a group of TCP factors, targeted by miR319, play a positive role in promoting shoot branching.\n\nWhen researchers overexpress miR319 in Arabidopsis thaliana, it leads to a decrease in rosette branch production. On the other hand, reducing the activity of TCP3 or creating triple knockout (KO) mutations in TCP3, TCP4, and TCP10 results in fewer branches. However, introducing a miR319-resistant version of TCP3 leads to a highly branched phenotype, suggesting that TCP3 and related miR319 targets function as positive regulators of shoot branching.\n\nGenetic analysis using the strigolactone-deficient max4 mutant shows that strigolactones contribute to the reduced branching observed in miR319 overexpressing lines and the tcp3,4,10 triple mutant. Through transcriptomic and DNA-binding analyses, researchers found that TCP3 indirectly influences strigolactone biosynthesis genes. Instead, miR319 overexpression increases the sensitivity of branching to nitrogen limitation and reduces nitrate uptake, which in turn raises the expression of strigolactone synthesis genes.\n\nFurthermore, the study reveals that carbon starvation lowers the transcription levels of miR319-targeted TCPs, regardless of miR319 accumulation. Moreover, TCP3 may connect carbon availability to sugar signaling via HEXOKINASE1. In conclusion, the miR319-targeted TCP module emerges as a positive regulator of shoot branching, linking plant architecture to carbon and nitrogen availability.",
  "summary": "Shoot branching is a highly plastic developmental process that allows plants to adjust their architecture to environmental conditions, such as carbon and nitrogen availability. Although the class II TCP transcription factor BRANCHED1 is a well-established repressor of shoot branching, the contribution of other TCP factors during this process remains less well understood. Here, we show that the…",
  "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."
}