Is the recovery of microtubule orientation in pea roots dependent on the cell wall?

✍ Scribed by N.J. Holdaway; R.G. White; R.L. Overall

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 676 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1065-6995
• DOI: 10.1006/cbir.1995.1029

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This study tested several aspects of a model proposed by Williamson (1990, 1991) in which stresses in plant cell walls, detected by stress‐receptive portions of inelastic cellulose microfibrils, orient microtubules via interactions with cell wall‐linked transmembrane proteins. Young expanding cells of pea root tips have highly ordered transverse arrays of microtubules oriented perpendicular to the direction of cell expansion. The recovery of these ordered MT arrays after depolymerisation with oryzalin was assessed. It was shown that treating roots with disruptors of microfibril synthesis (2,6‐dichlorobenzonitrile and calcofluor white) or the disruption of Arg‐Gly‐Asp (RGD)‐mediated wall‐membrane links did not affect the orientation of recovering microtubule arrays. Furthermore, cell wall stresses themselves appeared unnecessary for regeneration of transverse arrays. The relevance of these findings to Williamson's hypothesis is discussed.