LATERAL BRANCHING OXIDOREDUCTASE acts in the final stages of strigolactone biosynthesis in Arabidopsis

Significance Strigolactone hormones regulate many plant growth and developmental processes and are particularly important in regulating growth in response to nonoptimal conditions. Plants produce a range of bioactive strigolactone-like compounds, suggesting that the biosynthesis pathway is complex. Despite this complexity, only one type of enzyme, the MORE AXILLARY GROWTH1 (MAX1) cytochrome P450, has been attributed to the diversity of strigolactones. Using transcriptomics and reverse genetics, we discovered a previously uncharacterized gene that encodes a 2-oxoglutarate and Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenase involved in strigolactone production downstream of MAX1. Studies with the corresponding mutant have shown that previously identified strigolactone-type compounds in Arabidopsis are not the major strigolactone-type shoot branching hormone in this model species.