How selective severing by katanin promotes order in the plant cortical microtubule array.

ABSTRACT: Plant morphogenesis requires differential and often asymmetric growth. A key role in controlling anisotropic expansion of individual cells is played by the cortical microtubule array. Although highly organized, the array can nevertheless rapidly change in response to internal and external cues. Experiments have identified the microtubule-severing enzyme katanin as a central player in controlling the organizational state of the array. Katanin action is required both for normal alignment and the adaptation of array orientation to mechanical, environmental, and developmental stimuli. How katanin fulfills its controlling role, however, remains poorly understood. On the one hand, from a theoretical perspective, array ordering depends on the "weeding out" of discordant microtubules through frequ

SUBMITTER: Deinum EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5502621 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature