Actin microfilaments form a three-dimensional cytoskeletal network throughout the cell and constitute an essential throughway for organelle and vesicle transport. Development of Arabidopsis trichomes, unicellular structures derived from the epidermis, is being used as a genetic system in which to study actin-dependent growth in plant cells. The present study indicates that filamentous actin (F-actin) plays an important role during Arabidopsis trichome morphogenesis. For example, immunolocalization of actin filaments during trichome morphogenesis identified rearrangements of the cytoskeletal structure during the development of the mature cell. Moreover, pharmacological experiments indicate that there are distinct requirements for actin- and microtubule-dependent function during trichome morphogenesis. The F-actin-disrupting drug cytochalasin D does not affect the establishment of polarity during trichome development; however, maintenance and coordination of the normal pattern of cell growth are very sensitive to this drug. In contrast, oryzalin, an agent that depolymerizes microtubules, severely inhibits cell polarization. Furthermore, cytochalasin D treatment phenocopies a known class of mutations that cause distorted trichome morphology. Results of an analysis of cell shape and microfilament structure in wild-type, mutant, and drug-treated trichomes are consistent with a role for actin in the maintenance and coordination of an established growth pattern.

SUMMARYFeatures of preprophase bands (PPBs) of microtubules (MTs), and the spatial relationship between phragmosomes, PPB sites, and developing phragmoplasts during cytokinesis, are reviewed, setting new observations in the context of current knowledge.PPBs in onion root tip cells are present by the beginning of the Gi period of the cell cycle. They are at first wide, but later become more compact, narrower bands. M Ts traverse the cytoplasm between the band at the cell cortex and the nuclear envelope. This whole assemblage of nucleus, PPB and intervening M Ts remains together when the cell is ruptured during preparation for examination by immunofluorescence microscopy. Double bands are occasionally seen in early stages of PPB development, perhaps as a consequence of double induction from neighbouring cells. Calmodulin is not present in PPBs at a higher concentration than in the general cytoplasm, but it is more abundant in parts of the spindle and in the phragmoplast.The PPB MTs disappear at prophase, but nevertheless the new cell plate fuses with the parental cell walls at the PPB site. This spatial relationship can be disrupted by treatment with CIPC. Another experimental disruption of the relationship, accomplished by making minute wounds in the PPB site of mitotic cells in Tradescantia stamen hairs, is described. In other experiments on these cells the phragmoplast is shown to become tethered to the PPB site when the cell plate is half to threequarters developed, although the telophase nuclei are free to move. Rhodamine-labelled phalloidin reveals putative F-actin in the phragmoplast of Tradescantia, but not in the gap between the extending phragmoplast and the PPB site. Rhodamine-labelled phalloidin also stains cytoplasmic strands that exist when cytoplasmic streaming occurs before and after (but not during) mitosis. Cytochalasin B treatment blocks incorporation of actin into the phragmoplast, which, however, can still develop, though usually abnormally. The F-actin of the phragmoplast may function in con solidation of the cell plate, rather than in spatial guidance of its growth toward the PPB site at the cell surface.

Asada T, Sonobe S, Shibaoka H j1991) Microtubule translocation in the cytokinetic apparatus of cultured tobacco cells. Nature 350: 238-241

calization of exchangeable cellular Ca2 and that, in spite of inevitable limitations, it is a useful tool for exploring Ca2 regulation. Sensitivity of Precipitation Reaction Klein et al. (39) show that the minimum concentration at which cations precipitate with unbuffered 2% antimonate on ice at pH 7.8 is 10 M Ca2 , 10 M Mg2 , and 10.2 M Nat.

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