Polarization predicts the pattern of cellularization in cereal endosperm

Abstract

The endosperm of cereal grains develops as a multinucleate mass of wall-less cytoplasm (syncytium) that lines the periphery of the central cell before becoming cellular. The pattern of initial wall formation is precisely oriented and is followed by a round of precisely oriented formative cell division that gives rise to initials for the two tissues of endosperm. The initial anticlinal walls form at boundaries of nuclear-cytoplasmic domains (NCDs) defined by radial microtubules emanating from nuclei in the syncytium. Polarized growth of the NCDs in axes perpendicular to the embryo sac wall and centripetal elongation of the anticlinal walls results in a single layer of open ended alveoli overtopped by the remaining syncytial cytoplasm. This arboreal stage, so named because the elongate nucleate columns of cytoplasm resemble an orchard of trees, predicts the division polarity of the imminent formative division. Mitosis occurs as a wave which, like polarization, moves in both directions from ventral to dorsal. Spindles are oriented parallel to the long axis of the alveoli and cell plates give rise to periclinal walls. The outer daughter nuclei (aleurone initials) are thus completely enclosed by walls and the inner nuclei (starchy endosperm initials) are in alveoli adjacent to the central vacuole.