Brassinazole treatment of arf2 and wild-type dark-grown seedlings

While the close relationship between BRs and auxin has been widely reported, the molecular mechanism for combinatorial control of shared target genes has remained elusive. In this work, we demonstrate that BRs synergistically increase seedling sensitivity to auxin and show that combined treatment with both hormones can increase the magnitude and duration of gene expression. arf2 mutants are less sensitive to changes in endogenous BR levels, while a large number of genes affected in an arf2 background are returned to near wild-type levels by altering BR biosynthesis. Together, these data suggest a model where BIN2 increases expression of auxin-induced genes by directly inactivating repressor ARFs, leading to synergistic increases in transcription.

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Vert G, Walcher CL, Chory J, Nemhauser JL