Abstract
In higher plant cells, it is well known hypotheses that cortical microtubules (CMTs) regulate the direction of cellulose microfibril (CMF) deposition in the cell wall, and that the direction of CMFs forms and maintains the cell shape, however, the mechanisms how CMTs regurate the CMF deposition are still unclear. In this study, we aim to identify the mechanisms, and performed the chemical-genetical approach for screening chemical compounds which affected the cell shape of transgenic tobacco BY-2 cell line expressing GFP-tubulin and histon-tdTomato. In the first screening, some chemical compounds caused characteristic "spherical swelling" phenotype. This phenotype is similar to that induced by microtubule depolymerizing agent, propyzamide, or cellulose synthesizing inhibitor, DBN. Therefore, these chemical compounds might inhibit the CMT-CMF dependent plant cell morphogentic mechanisms. We further categorized these compounds by observing cell wall content by calcofluor staining or microtubule alignment by GFP-tubulin fluorescence. We well report and discuss these results.
