Tools for studying the cytoskeleton during plant cell division

The plant cytoskeleton regulates fundamental biological processes, including cell division. How to experimentally perturb the cytoskeleton is a key question if one wants to understand the role of both actin filaments (AFs) and microtubules (MTs) in a given biological process. While a myriad of mutan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in plant science 2022-10, Vol.27 (10), p.1049-1062
Main Author: Caillaud, Marie-Cécile
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
actin
Botanics
cell biology
Cellular Biology
cytoskeleton
Life Sciences
microtubules
plant biology
Subcellular Processes
Vegetal Biology
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Summary:The plant cytoskeleton regulates fundamental biological processes, including cell division. How to experimentally perturb the cytoskeleton is a key question if one wants to understand the role of both actin filaments (AFs) and microtubules (MTs) in a given biological process. While a myriad of mutants are available, knock-out in cytoskeleton regulators, when nonlethal, often produce little or no phenotypic perturbation because such regulators are often part of a large family, leading to functional redundancy. In this review, alternative techniques to modify the plant cytoskeleton during plant cell division are outlined. The different pharmacological and genetic approaches already developed in cell culture, transient assays, or in whole organisms are presented. Perspectives on the use of optogenetics to perturb the plant cytoskeleton are also discussed. The cytoskeleton regulates fundamental biological processes in plants, including cell division, cell elongation, and stress responses.Mutation of cytoskeleton regulators, when not part of a large gene family, impacts cell division, but it is difficult to disentangle the direct effects induced by chronic cytoskeleton perturbations from indirect ones.Experimental systems can acutely manipulate cytoskeleton in cultured cells, transient assays, or stably transformed plants. These include pharmacological and genetic strategies which work in relevant time frames for studying the cell division mechanisms.The development of fast and reversible optogenetic tools in the field of animal cell biology might in the near future change our experimental design regarding plant cytoskeleton perturbations.
ISSN:1360-1385
1878-4372
DOI:10.1016/j.tplants.2022.05.006