Abstract
The plant cytoskeleton is a highly dynamic system that consists of two components: microfilaments and microtubules. Actin microfilaments are essential for polar growth, cytoplasmic streaming, directing polar growth, anchoring the nucleus, gravity sensing, signalling pathway integration and a number of other functions. Actin morphology and dynamics are orchestrated by a variety of small actin binding proteins, and some of them have become a source of actin interaction domains widely used as markers for microfilaments in fusions with fluorescent reporter proteins. However, older techniques are still employed for actin visualization. In this short review, we will focus on the diversity of fluorescent reporter fusions for F-actin and on approaches and existing free software for the analysis of cytoskeleton organization, mainly in Arabidopsis. Abbreviations: MF ― microfilament, MT ― microtubule, GFP ― green fluorescent protein, MFA ― Microfilament Analyzer.
Highlights
Every plant cell includes a number of different organelles, such as a nucleus, an endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, a Golgi apparatus, plastids, mitochondria, etc
The plant cytoskeleton consists of two main components, both built from protein polymers: microfilaments built from actin, and microtubules built from tubulin
Microfilaments are ≈ 7–8 nm thick (Egelman, 1985; Holmes, Popp, Gebhard, and Kabsch, 1990) and are built from dimers of actin, which is found in the cytoplasm in two states, globular G-actin and polymeric F-actin, concentrations of which are in dynamic equilibrium
Summary
Every plant cell includes a number of different organelles, such as a nucleus, an endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, a Golgi apparatus, plastids, mitochondria, etc These are not contained in the cellular envelope but are suspended in a network of fine filamentous structures — the cytoskeleton. The very term ‘cytoskeleton’ suggests a rigid and stable thing, in reality the plant cytoskeleton is equal to the animal one in its dynamics (Steinborn, 2002; Paradez, Wright, and Ehrhardt, 2006). Both MTs and MFs are highly dynamic in vivo and are constantly rebuilt and rearranged. In this review we will focus on MF organization, visualization approaches and the analysis of its organization
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