セミナー情報

Microtubules (MTs) play a crucial role in the anisotropic deposition of cell wall material, thereby affecting direction of growth. A wide range of tip-growing cells display highly polarized cell growth and MTs have been implicated in regulating directionality and expansion. However, the molecular machinery underlying MT dynamics in tip-growing plant cells remains unclear. Here we show that highly dynamic MT bundles form cyclically in the polarized expansion zone of moss caulonemal cells through the coalescence of growing MT plus ends. Furthermore, plant-specific kinesins KINID1 that are essential for the proper MT organization at cytokinesis also regulate turnover of the tip MT bundles as well as the directionality and rate of cell growth. The plus ends of MTs grow toward the expansion zone and KINID1 is necessary for the stability of a single coherent focus of MTs in the center of the zone, whose formation coincides with the accumulation of KINID1. We propose that KINID-dependent MT bundling is essential for the correct directionality of growth as well as for promoting growth per se. The possible roles of the MT bundles in polarized cell growth will be discussed.


Reference
Hiwatashi Y. et al (2014) Kinesins Have a Dual Function in Organizing Microtubules during Both Tip Growth and Cytokinesis in Physcomitrella patens. Plant Cell. In press.