Rapid formin-mediated actin-filament elongation is essential for polarized plant cell growth.

Formins are present in all eukaryotes and are essential for the creation of actin-based structures responsible for diverse cellular processes. Because multicellular organisms contain large formin gene families, establishing the physiological functions of formin isoforms has been difficult. Using RNAi, we analyzed the function of all 9 formin genes within the moss Physcomitrella patens. We show that plants lacking class II formins (For2) are severely stunted and composed of spherical cells with disrupted actin organization. In contrast, silencing of all other formins results in normal elongated cell morphology and actin organization. Consistent with a role in polarized growth, For2 are apically localized in growing cells. We show that an N-terminal phosphatase tensin (PTEN)-like domain mediates apical localization. The PTEN-like domain is followed by a conserved formin homology (FH)1-FH2 domain, known to promote actin polymerization. To determine whether apical localization of any FH1-FH2 domain mediates polarized growth, we performed domain swapping. We found that only the class II FH1-FH2, in combination with the PTEN-like domain, rescues polarized growth, because it cannot be replaced with a similar domain from a For1. We used in vitro polymerization assays to dissect the functional differences between these FH1-FH2 domains. We found that both the FH1 and the FH2 domains from For2 are required to mediate exceptionally rapid rates of actin filament elongation, much faster than any other known formin. Thus, our data demonstrate that rapid rates of actin elongation are critical for driving the formation of apical filamentous actin necessary for polarized growth.

An ancient Sec10-formin fusion provides insights into actin-mediated regulation of exocytosis.

Exocytosis, facilitated by the exocyst, is fundamentally important for remodeling cell walls and membranes. Here, we analyzed For1F, a novel gene that encodes a fusion of an exocyst subunit (Sec10) and an actin nucleation factor (formin). We showed that the fusion occurred early in moss evolution and has been retained for more than 170 million years. In Physcomitrella patens, For1F is essential, and the expressed protein is a fusion of Sec10 and formin. Reduction of For1F or actin filaments inhibits exocytosis, and For1F dynamically associates with Sec6, another exocyst subunit, in an actin-dependent manner. Complementation experiments demonstrate that constitutive expression of either half of the gene or the paralogous Sec10b rescues loss of For1F, suggesting that fusion of the two domains is not essential, consistent with findings in yeast, where formin and the exocyst are linked noncovalently. Although not essential, the fusion may have had selective advantages and provides a unique opportunity to probe actin regulation of exocytosis.

Plant formins: membrane anchors for actin polymerization.

In plants, the actin cytoskeleton plays a fundamental role in intracellular transport, cell growth, and morphology. Formins are central regulators of actin polymerization and actin-based processes in many eukaryotes. Plants have a diverse family of formins and this diversity arose early in land plant evolution, probably deriving from family expansion and domain acquisition. Recently, formins from different plant lineages have been studied and the focus of these studies is beginning to shift from biochemical characterization to in vivo function. In vivo studies have shown that distinct biochemical activities confer specific cellular functions. Despite these differences, many plant formins have in common a direct link to the plasma membrane, suggesting that formins in plants are important links between the plasma membrane and actin remodeling.

Class II formin targeting to the cell cortex by binding PI(3,5)P(2) is essential for polarized growth.

Class II formins are key regulators of actin and are essential for polarized plant cell growth. Here, we show that the class II formin N-terminal phosphatase and tensin (PTEN) domain binds phosphoinositide-3,5-bisphosphate (PI(3,5)P(2)). Replacing the PTEN domain with polypeptides of known lipid-binding specificity, we show that PI(3,5)P(2) binding was required for formin-mediated polarized growth. Via PTEN, formin also localized to the cell apex, phragmoplast, and to the cell cortex as dynamic cortical spots. We show that the cortical localization driven by binding to PI(3,5)P(2) was required for function. Silencing the kinases that produce PI(3,5)P(2) reduced cortical targeting of formin and inhibited polarized growth. We show a subset of cortical formin spots moved in actin-dependent linear trajectories. We observed that the linearly moving subpopulation of cortical formin generated new actin filaments de novo and along preexisting filaments, providing evidence for formin-mediated actin bundling in vivo. Taken together, our data directly link PI(3,5)P(2) to generation and remodeling of the cortical actin array.