Mechanism of microtubule array expansion in the cytokinetic phragmoplast

Takashi Murata (), Toshio Sano, Michiko Sasabe, Shigenori Nonaka, Tetsuya Higashiyama, Seiichiro Hasezawa, Yasunori Machida and Mitsuyasu Hasebe
Additional contact information
Takashi Murata: National Institute for Basic Biology
Toshio Sano: Faculty of Bioscience and Applied Chemistry, Hosei University
Michiko Sasabe: Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
Shigenori Nonaka: School of Life Science, Graduate School of Advanced Studies
Tetsuya Higashiyama: Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
Seiichiro Hasezawa: Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Yasunori Machida: Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
Mitsuyasu Hasebe: National Institute for Basic Biology

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract In land plants, the cell plate partitions the daughter cells at cytokinesis. The cell plate initially forms between daughter nuclei and expands centrifugally until reaching the plasma membrane. The centrifugal development of the cell plate is driven by the centrifugal expansion of the phragmoplast microtubule array, but the molecular mechanism underlying this expansion is unknown. Here, we show that the phragmoplast array comprises stable microtubule bundles and dynamic microtubules. We find that the dynamic microtubules are nucleated by γ-tubulin on stable bundles. The dynamic microtubules elongate at the plus ends and form new bundles preferentially at the leading edge of the phragmoplast. At the same time, they are moved away from the cell plate, maintaining a restricted distribution of minus ends. We propose that cycles of attachment of γ-tubulin complexes onto the microtubule bundles, microtubule nucleation and bundling, accompanied by minus-end-directed motility, drive the centrifugal development of the phragmoplast.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2967 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:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2967

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2967

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 ().