Wound-inducible ANAC071 and ANAC096 transcription factors promote cambial cell formation in incised Arabidopsis flowering stems

ANAC071 and its homolog ANAC096 are plant-specific transcription factors required for the initiation of cell division during wound healing in incised Arabidopsis flowering stems and Arabidopsis hypocotyl grafts; however, the mechanism remains mostly unknown. In this study, we showed that wound-induced cambium formation involved cell proliferation and the promoter activity of TDR/PXY (cambium-related gene) in the incised stem. Prior to the wound-induced cambium formation, both ANAC071 and ANAC096 were expressed at these sites. anac- multiple mutants significantly decreased wound-induced cambium formation in the incised stems and suppressed the conversion from mesophyll cells to cambial cells in an ectopic vascular cell induction culture system (VISUAL). Our results suggest that ANAC071 and ANAC096 are redundantly involved in the process of “cambialization”, the conversion from differentiated cells to cambial cells, and these cambium-like cells proliferate and provide cells in wound tissue during the tissue-reunion process. Matsuoka et al. study the mechanism by which transcription factors ANAC071 and ANAC096 promotes regeneration of wounded tissue in Arabidopsis by mutagenesis and morphological characterization. They find that these factors are essential for wound-induced cambium formation from dedifferentiated cells before the initiation of cell division.