MAP65 24 25 Summary statement: We performed a time-resolved localization screen of multiple 26 subunits of the exocyst complex throughout moss cytokinesis and show that each subunit 27 has a unique spatiotemporal recruitment pattern. 28 29 2 Abstract 30 31 During plant cytokinesis a radially expanding membrane-enclosed cell plate is formed 32 from fusing vesicles that compartmentalizes the cell in two. How fusion is spatially 33 restricted to the site of cell plate formation is unknown. Aggregation of cell-plate 34 membrane starts near regions of microtubule overlap within the bipolar phragmoplast 35 apparatus of the moss Physcomitrella patens. Since vesicle fusion generally requires 36 coordination of vesicle tethering and subsequent fusion activity we analysed the 37 subcellular localization of several subunits of the exocyst, a tethering complex active 38 during plant cytokinesis. We found that Sec6, but neither Sec3 or Sec5 subunits localized 39 to microtubule overlap regions in advance of cell plate construction started in moss. 40 Moreover, Sec6 exhibited a conserved physical interaction with an orthologue of the 41 Sec1/Munc18 protein KEULE, an important regulator for cell-plate membrane vesicle 42 fusion in Arabidopsis. Recruitment of PpKEULE and vesicles to the early cell plate was 43 delayed upon Sec6 gene silencing. Our findings thus suggest that vesicle-vesicle fusion is 44 in part enabled by a pool of exocyst subunits at microtubule overlaps that is recruited 45 independent of the delivery of vesicles. 46 47 56 2014; Boruc and Van Damme, 2015). Adaptations of canonical trafficking mechanisms 57 are however required because there is no pre-existing target membrane at the site of cell 58 3 division to which vesicles can fuse. Instead, membrane deposition is thought to be 59 initiated by 'homotypic' fusion of vesicles (Smertenko et al., 2017). This raises the 60 question of how vesicle fusion is spatially restricted to the site of cell division and not 61 spuriously throughout the cell when vesicles meet. It is thought that vesicles are 62 transported along polarized microtubules to the centre of the phragmoplast, a 63 cytoskeletal apparatus that supports cell plate assembly. Although locally concentrating 64 vesicles may enhance the fusion rates of fusion-competent vesicles, it is unclear whether 65 a transport-based mechanism alone can provide the spatial accuracy required to build a 66 straight and flat cell plate. Recently we identified short stretches of antiparallel 67 microtubule overlap at the midzone of phragmoplasts in the moss Physcomitrella patens 68 as sites where membrane build up is initiated (de Keijzer et al., 2017). It remained 69 however unclear whether there are molecules at overlaps that trigger vesicle fusion 70 locally. 71 In eukaryotic cells the fusion of transport vesicles with endomembrane compartments 72 and the plasma membrane relies on the combined action of fusion and tethering 73 complexes. The force driving the fusion of a vesicle and its destination membrane is 74 almost...