How to let go: pectin and plant cell adhesion.

Plant cells do not, in general, migrate. They maintain a fixed position relative to their neighbors, intimately linked through growth and differentiation. The mediator of this connection, the pectin-rich middle lamella, is deposited during cell division and maintained throughout the cell's life to protect tissue integrity. The maintenance of adhesion requires cell wall modification and is dependent on the actin cytoskeleton. There are developmental processes that require cell separation, such as organ abscission, dehiscence, and ripening. In these instances, the pectin-rich middle lamella must be actively altered to allow cell separation, a process which also requires cell wall modification. In this review, we will focus on the role of pectin and its modification in cell adhesion and separation. Recent insights gained in pectin gel mechanics will be discussed in relation to existing knowledge of pectin chemistry as it relates to cell adhesion. As a whole, we hope to begin defining the physical mechanisms behind a cells' ability to hang on, and how it lets go.

Actin depolymerizing factors ADF7 and ADF10 play distinct roles during pollen development and pollen tube growth.

An important player in actin remodeling is the actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) which increases actin filament treadmilling rates. Previously, we had prepared fluorescent protein fusions of two Arabidopsis pollen specific ADFs, ADF7 and ADF10. These had enabled us to determine the temporal expression patterns and subcellular localization of these proteins during male gametophyte development. Here we generated stable transformants containing both chimeric genes allowing for simultaneous imaging and direct comparison. One of the striking differences between the two proteins was the localization profile in the growing pollen tube apex. Whereas ADF10 was associated with the filamentous actin array forming the subapical actin fringe, ADF7 was present in the same cytoplasmic region, but in diffuse form. This suggests that ADF7 is involved in the high actin turnover that is likely to occur in the fringe by continuously and efficiently depolymerizing filamentous actin and supplying monomeric actin to the advancing end of the fringe. The possibility to visualize both of these pollen-specific ADFs simultaneously opens avenues for future research into the regulatory function of actin binding proteins in pollen.

Characterization of two carnation petal prolyl 4 hydroxylases.

Prolyl 4-hydroxylases (P4Hs) catalyze the proline hydroxylation, a major post-translational modification, of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins. Two carnation petal P4H cDNAs, (Dianthus caryophyllus prolyl 4-hydroxylase) DcP4H1 and DcP4H2, were identified and characterized at the gene expression and biochemical level in order to investigate their role in flower senescence. Both mRNAs showed similar patterns of expression with stable transcript abundance during senescence progression and differential tissue-specific expression with DcP4H1 and DcP4H2 strongly expressed in ovaries and stems, respectively. Recombinant DcP4H1 and DcP4H2 proteins were produced and their catalytic properties were determined. Pyridine 2,4-dicarboxylate (PDCA) was identified as a potent inhibitor of the in vitro enzyme activity of both P4Hs and used to determine whether inhibition of proline hydroxylation in petals is involved in senescence progression of cut carnation flowers. PDCA suppressed the climacteric ethylene production indicating a strong correlation between the inhibition of DcP4H1 and DcP4H2 activity in vitro by PDCA and the suppression of climacteric ethylene production in cut carnation flowers.

Microfilament orientation constrains vesicle flow and spatial distribution in growing pollen tubes.

The dynamics of cellular organelles reveals important information about their functioning. The spatio-temporal movement patterns of vesicles in growing pollen tubes are controlled by the actin cytoskeleton. Vesicle flow is crucial for morphogenesis in these cells as it ensures targeted delivery of cell wall polysaccharides. Remarkably, the target region does not contain much filamentous actin. We model the vesicular trafficking in this area using as boundary conditions the expanding cell wall and the actin array forming the apical actin fringe. The shape of the fringe was obtained by imposing a steady state and constant polymerization rate of the actin filaments. Letting vesicle flux into and out of the apical region be determined by the orientation of the actin microfilaments and by exocytosis was sufficient to generate a flux that corresponds in magnitude and orientation to that observed experimentally. This model explains how the cytoplasmic streaming pattern in the apical region of the pollen tube can be generated without the presence of actin microfilaments.

Involvement of Arabidopsis prolyl 4 hydroxylases in hypoxia, anoxia and mechanical wounding.

Arabidopsis prolyl 4 hydroxylases (P4Hs) catalyze an important post-translational modification in plants, though the only information on their patterns of expression is solely based on Arabidopsis microarray analysis data. In addition, the expression patterns of plants P4Hs in response to hypoxia, anoxia and other abiotic stresses such as mechanical wounding have never been studied extensively, despite their central role in hypoxic response of several other organisms through the regulation of stability of the HIF-1alpha transcription factor, the global regulator of hypoxic response. The 13 putative Arabidopsis P4Hs are low abundance transcripts with differential patterns of expression in response to two hypoxic, 1.5% and 5% O(2), anoxic conditions and mechanical wounding. Hypoxia of 1.5% O(2) induced the expression of six At-P4Hs while hypoxia of 5% O(2) and anoxia induced the expression of three and two At-P4Hs, respectively. Moreover, 308 Arabidopsis genes including 25 transcription factors were identified in silico among the differentially expressed genes under hypoxia that contain proline hydroxylation motifs. These results suggest involvement of this post-translational modification in the processing of hypoxia induced proteins providing an alternative level of regulation for responses to oxygen deficiency conditions.