Chinese Scientists Make Groundbreaking Discoveries in Plant Cytoskeleton

doi:10.11983/CBB18187

Abstract

Abstract: Microtubules (MTs) are an essential component of the cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells. Similar to other living organisms, for MTs, the organization and dynamics are critical for the normal growth and development of plants but are also responsible for environmental responses. Recently, Chinese scientists have made groundbreaking discoveries in illustrating the underlying mechanisms of MTs in precise regulating the dynamic organization of cortical arrays in plants.

Key words: cytoskeleton, microtubule, microtubule severing, dynamic organization

Shen Jinbo, Jiang Liwen. Chinese Scientists Make Groundbreaking Discoveries in Plant Cytoskeleton[J]. Chinese Bulletin of Botany, 2018, 53(6): 741-744.

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URL: https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/10.11983/CBB18187

https://www.chinbullbotany.com/EN/Y2018/V53/I6/741

Figures/Tables 1

Figure 1 Schematic models of Katanin and Augmin functions on microtubules (MTs) organization in plants (modified from Wang et al., 2017, 2018) (A) The formation of Katanin complexes and MTs severing in Arabidopsis cells. Katanin is composed of a p60 subunit KTN1 and a p80 subunit KTN80, which exists as a KTN1-KTN80 heterodimer in the cytosol (left panel). KTN80 determines the precise targeting of KTN1-KTN80 heterodimers to MTs crossover and branching nucleation sites. KTN1 further triggers the oligomerization of the mixed types of KTN1-KTN80 heterodimers that sense MT geometry to confer precise MT severing (right panel); (B) Augmin functions in regulating microtubule arrays by preventing katanin-mediated microtubule severing and maintaining the stability of crossovers (left panel). In the Augmin knockdown mutant (amiR-AUG6), a significantly higher microtubule severing frequency occurs and a greater proportion of aligned microtubule arrays (right panel) compared to the fine-network microtubule architectures observed in wild-type (left panel).

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