Abstract
Intercellular attachment is very important phenomenon in plant development and morphogenesis. Previously, using T-DNA tagging method with leaf disk culture of haploid Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, we produced some nolac (non-organogenic callus with loosely attached cells) mutants that showed the weak intercellular attachment and lost the ability to form organs. In this report, we isolated NpLRX1 gene that was one of the genes tagged with T-DNA in nolac-K4 mutant. NpLRX1 has two domains, LRR (Leucine rich repeat) domain and extensin-like domain. This structure suggests that NpLRX1 is one of the structural cell wall proteins and has a role in the communication between cytosol andcell wall mediated by LRR domain.
When the LRR domain of NpLRX1 was ectopically expressed in tobacco cultured BY-2 cells, the cells frequently swelled and the direction of cell division was sometimes out of order. NpLRX1 may regulate the dynamics of the cytoskelton.
