A minus-end directed kinesin motor directs gravitropism in Physcomitrella patens

Yufan Li, Zhaoguo Deng, Yasuko Kamisugi, Zhiren Chen, Jiajun Wang, Xue Han, Yuxiao Wei, Hang He, William Terzaghi, David J. Cove, Andrew C. Cuming and Haodong Chen ()
Additional contact information
Yufan Li: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Zhaoguo Deng: Center for Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
Yasuko Kamisugi: Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds
Zhiren Chen: Center for Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
Jiajun Wang: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Xue Han: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Yuxiao Wei: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Hang He: State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences and School of Life Sciences, Peking University
William Terzaghi: Wilkes University
David J. Cove: Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds
Andrew C. Cuming: Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds
Haodong Chen: Center for Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Gravity is a critical environmental factor regulating directional growth and morphogenesis in plants, and gravitropism is the process by which plants perceive and respond to the gravity vector. The cytoskeleton is proposed to play important roles in gravitropism, but the underlying mechanisms are obscure. Here we use genetic screening in Physcomitrella patens, to identify a locus GTRC, that when mutated, reverses the direction of protonemal gravitropism. GTRC encodes a processive minus-end-directed KCHb kinesin, and its N-terminal, C-terminal and motor domains are all essential for transducing the gravity signal. Chimeric analysis between GTRC/KCHb and KCHa reveal a unique role for the N-terminus of GTRC in gravitropism. Further study shows that gravity-triggered normal asymmetric distribution of actin filaments in the tip of protonema is dependent on GTRC. Thus, our work identifies a microtubule-based cellular motor that determines the direction of plant gravitropism via mediating the asymmetric distribution of actin filaments.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24546-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24546-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24546-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().