Membrane lipids and cytoskeleton dynamics are intimately interconnected in the eukaryotic cell, but only recently have the molecular mechanisms operating at this interface in plant cells been addressed experimentally. F-actin microfilaments and microtubules are major constituents of the cellular cytoskeleton in plant cells as well. Nevertheless, plant cells are strained by developmental as well as environmental mechanical challenges because of the crucial structural and regulatory function of the cell wall.
This regulatory link provides an important mechanism to increase the membrane-F-actin dynamics in the cortex of plant cells locally. The same two laboratories from the ASCR and Charles University collaborated with colleagues from Durham University, UK on the discovery of a new type of F-actin nucleator (formin) capable of combining actin nucleation with anchoring in the lipid membrane and direct links to the microtubular cytoskeleton. Both of these reports provide new insight into the understanding of how plant cells regulate the cytoskeleton-membrane interface to combine high mechanical stress-resistance with the necessity of dynamics and plasticity.
21 May 2010
