Dynamic Properties of Microtubules in Plant Cells, with Implications for Spatial Organization, Growth and Development

Microtubules are dynamic polymers found in all eukaryotic organisms that build the cellular machines that separate chromosomes, polarize the cytoplasm, direct expansion and divide cells. Interestingly, plant cells lack the central microtubule-organizing centres common in animal cells but still manage to organize microtubules into complex arrays.

The research in my laboratory explores how the dynamic properties of microtubules, which we can now quantify in live cells using fluorescent reporter proteins, help to determine the spatial organization of microtubule arrays, and how these arrays in turn control the growth, morphology and performance of plants. I will outline how genetic approaches to identify key accessory proteins that modulate microtubule dynamics are generating experimental tools for understanding the mechanisms that drive organization of the microtubule arrays. Comparing the dynamic behaviour of microtubules in mutant lines that are defective in one or more of these accessory proteins enables us to test models of the molecular mechanisms that drive microtubule organization. We are currently using this knowledge to explore the role microtubules play in the mechanical properties of the cellulosic cell wall, the helical handedness of elongating organs, and even the polar transport of the hormone auxin.