Cell Cycle-Specific Disruption of the Preprophase Band of Microtubules in Fern Protonemata: Effects of Displacement of the Endoplasm by Centrifugation

The preprophase band (PPB) of microtubules (MTs), which appears at the future site of cytokinesis prior to cell division in higher plant cells, disappears by metaphase. Recent studies have shown that displacement of the endoplasm from the PPB region by centrifugation delays the disappearance of the PPB. To study the role of the endoplasm in the cell cycle-specific disruption of the PPB, the filamentous protonemal cells of the fern Adiantum capilius-veneris L. were centrifuged twice so that the first centrifugation displaced the endoplasm from the site of the PPB and the second returned it to its original location. The endoplasm, including the nucleus of various stages of mitosis, could be returned by the second centrifugation to the original region of the PPB, which persists during mitosis in the centrifuged cells. When endoplasm with a prophase nucleus was returned to its original location, the PPB was not disrupted. When endoplasm with a prometa-phase telophase nucleus was similarly returned, the PPB was disrupted within 10 min of termination of centrifugation. In protonemal cells of Adiantum, a second PPB is often formed near the displaced nucleus after the first centrifugation. In cells in which the endoplasm was considered to have been returned to its original location at the prophase/prometaphase transition, the second PPB did not disappear even though the initial PPB was disrupted by the endoplasm. These results suggest that cell cycle-specific disruption of the PPB is regulated by some factor(s) in the endoplasm, which appears at prometaphase, i.e. the stage at which the PPB is disrupted in non-centrifuged cells.

Visualization of particle complexes in the plasma membrane of Micrasterias denticulata associated with the formation of cellulose fibrils in primary and secondary cell walls.

Highly ordered arrays of intramembrane particles are observed in freeze-fractured plasma membranes of the green alga Micrasterias denticulata during the synthesis of the secondary cell wall. The observable architecture of the complex consists primarily of a precise hexagonal array of from 3 to 175 rosettes, consisting of 6 particles each, which fracture with the P-face. The complexes are observed at the ends of impressions of cellulose fibrils. The distance between rows of rosettes is equal to the center-to-center distance between parallel cellulose fibrils of the secondary wall. Correlation of the structure of the complex with the pattern of deposition indicates that the size of a given fibril is proportional to the number of rosettes engaged in its formation. Vesicles containing hexagonal arrays of rosettes are found in the cytoplasm and can be observed in the process of fusing with the plasma membrane, suggesting that the complexes are first assembled in the cytoplasm and then incorporated into the plasma membrane, where they become active in fibril formation. Single rosettes appear to be responsible for the synthesis of microfibrils during primary wall growth. Similar rosettes have now been detected in a green alga, in fern protonemata, and in higher plant cells. This structure, therefore, probably represents a significant component of the cellulose synthesizing mechanism in a large variety of plant cells.