Authors
Zongyou Lv, Chuhan Li, Rui Jiang, Xinlei Jia, Peng Di, Ying Xiao, Wansheng Chen
Published in
Journal of experimental botany. Jun 17, 2026. Epub Jun 17, 2026.
Abstract
Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) produces and deposits artemisinin in its glandular trichomes while the molecular mechanisms of trichome development remain poorly understood. Here, we conduct single-nucleus RNA sequencing of 10-day-old A. annua seedlings, depicting the specific expression of trichome cell in leaves. The reconstruction of developmental trajectory of trichome cells not only identifies novel expressed genes, but also elucidates trichome development involved in photosynthesis, auxin biosynthesis, and cutin biosynthesis. By integrating the developmental trajectory of trichome cells with histochemical assays, we identified several genes not previously reported to be involved in trichome development, such as TOE3, MYB1, WRKY10, and ZNF. Moreover, we identified a gene in subcluster 0 encoding a previously unknown WD40 repeat nuclear protein, WDR1, potentially involved in trichome development. We showed that WDR1 not only interacts with SPL9 and enhances its ability to activate HD1 expression, but also directly binds to HD1 itself, thereby forming a regulatory feedback loop that modulates trichome development in A. annua. This study reveals a previously uncharacterized gene that regulates trichome development in A. annua based on a single-cell transcriptome analysis. The results presented here offer unprecedented insight into a new pathway for enhancing trichome density and artemisinin production.
PMID:
42307650
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jun 2026.
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