Abstract
Plant vacuole plays diverse roles such as in protein storage, degradation of unnecessary cellular components, or osmotic adjustment. Vacuoles also occupy most of the cell volume in matured cells and are essential for cell growth and development of plant body. In recent years, tonoplasts have been visualized by the fluorescent dyes and GFP fluorescent proteins, and the novel vacuolar membrane dynamics have been revealed in higher plant cells. For examples, the tonoplasts partially invaginate into the vacuoles and form the complicated structures in Arabidopsis epidermal cells, and the tubular structures of vacuolar membrane (TVM) appear during cell plate formation in tobacco BY-2 cells. In this study, we visualized the vacuolar membrane by using fluorescent dyes and GFP probe in a moss, Physcomitrella patens. To examine the participation of vacuoles in the cell axis formation and cell differentiation, we also investigated the vacuolar membrane dynamics in the regenerating protoplasts.
