Statoliths and microfilaments in plant cells

✍ Scribed by Andreas Sievers; Simone Kruse; Ling-Long Kuo-Huang; Marina Wendt

• Book ID: 104753795
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 824 KB
• Volume: 179
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0032-0935
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00393699

✦ Synopsis

Microfilaments have been demonstrated in rhizoids of Chara fragilis Desvaux by labelling of actin with rhodamine-conjugated phalloidin. Each rhizoid contains thick microfilament-bundles arranged longitudinally in the basal region. In the subapical and apical regions, much thinner bundles exist which contact the statoliths and encircle them in the form of a dense envelope. In root statocytes from Lepidium sativum L. the presence of an actin network is indicated by the fact that application of cytochalasin B (25 micrograms ml-1 for 4 h) results in an approximately threefold increase in the rate of statolith (amyloplast) sedimentation relative to controls. It is concluded that in gravity-perceiving plant cells statoliths may trigger the transduction mechanism via actin filaments.