Exploring conservation of cellular-level traits in shade avoidance syndrome among species 5 169 (pxy, pxy pxl1 pxl2 er erl, all in the Col-0 background))(Etchells et al., 2013). However, our exploration of mutants with impaired secondary growth in Arabidopsis was difficult in achieving alignment during bolting. These mutants exhibited minimal germination and struggled to thrive, leading to a vulnerable system that ultimately rendered the pursuit of this trait in Arabidopsis impractical. Thus, we still include Arabidopsis for gene expression analysis later in this chapter, but we did not pursue further genetics directions in Arabidopsis. 5.2.3 Pith elongation is a conserved behavior in shade avoiding species In chapter 2 we observed the responses to FR light in tomato, a species within the Solanaceae family. We wanted to explore if these responses were conserved across species, and we tested other dicots with stem growth habit, starting with other species from the Solanaceae family; Capsicum annuum (commonly known as bell pepper, Figure 5.4) and Solanum melongena (eggplant, Figure 5.5). As we had been testing if Arabidopsis could be used as a stem-response model, we also wanted to test a species with stem growth habit from the Brassicaceae family, so we tested Brassica nigra (Figure 5.6). We also tested species from the Fabaceae (legume) family, Glycine max (soybean, Figure 5.7) to expand our understanding in dicot crops. For this set of species, we identified a strong elongation response specifically in internode 1 when these plants were exposed to supplemental far-red light (Figures 5.4-5.7). Furthermore, another common characteristic that emerged across these species was the elongation of pith cells in all species, except for the Arabidopsis inflorescence. These findings collectively establish tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, B. nigra, and soybean as notable examples of FR-responsive species in our diversity panel.
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