Microtubule and F-actin dynamics at the division site in living Tradescantia stamen hair cells

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have visualised F-actin and microtubules in living Tradescantia virginiana stamen hair cells by confocal laser scanning microscopy after microinjecting rhodamine-phalloidin or carboxyfluorescein-labelled brain tubulin. We monitored these components of the cytoskeleton as the cells prepared for division at preprophase and progressed through mitosis to cytokinesis. Reorganisation of the interphase cortical cytoskeleton results in preprophase bands of both F-actin and microtubules that coexist in the cell cortex, centred on the site at which the future cell plate will fuse with the parent cell wall. The preprophase band of microtubules is formed from microtubules that polymerise and incorporate tubulin during prophase. The preprophase band of actin may form either by reorganisation of pre-existing filaments or by de novo polymerisation. Both cytoskeletal components disappear from the future division site approximately five minutes prior to the breakdown of the nuclear envelope. Cortical microtubules are undetectable throughout mitosis and cytokinesis, whereas cortical F-actin remains abundant, although it is notably excluded from the division site. The phragmoplast, containing both F-actin and microtubules, expands towards the cortical actin exclusion-zone through a region that has no detectable microtubules or F-actin. The phragmoplast comes to rest in the predefined region of the cortex that is devoid of F-actin. It is proposed that cortical F-actin may act as a “negative” template which could position the phragmoplast and cell plate correctly. This is the first in vivo documentation of F-actin dynamics at the division site in living plant cells.