Abstract
It is well known that leaf pavemant cells show their jigsaw puzzle-like shapes in dicotyledonous plants. However, cell biological processes during the pavement cell morphogenesis are largely unknown. We found apoplastic localization of mRFP-tagged sialyl transferases (ST-mRFP), which is a marker of trans-Golgi membrane. The apoplastic localization became pronounced to the both ends of the guard cells and the cell border especially the curve region of the pavement cell during cell maturation. From these results, it is suggested that the secretory pathway, especially in which the cytosolic contents are release to apoplast including multi-vesicular bodies is involved in pavement cell morphogenesis. In this study, to observe the endomembrane structures involved in pavement cell morphogenesis, we performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation of Arabidopsis leaf tissue. TEM observation revealed existence of a lot of cytosoric contents-derived vesicle-like structures in apoplast. The vesicle-like structures were more frequently observed in young leaf than maturated leaf.
