FERONIA and microtubules independently contribute to mechanical integrity in the < i > Arabidopsis < /i > shoot

by Alice Malivert, Özer Erguvan, Antoine Chevallier, Antoine Dehem, Rodrigue Friaud, Mengying Liu, Marjolaine Martin, Théophile Peyraud, Olivier Hamant, Stéphane Verger To survive, cells must constantly resist mechanical stress. In plants, this involves the reinforcement of cell walls, notably through microtubule-dependent cellulose deposition. How wall sensing might contribute to this response is unknown. Here, we tested whether the microtubule response to stres s acts downstream of known wall sensors. Using a multistep screen with 11 mutant lines, we identify FERONIA (FER) as the primary candidate for the cell’s response to stress in the shoot. However, this does not imply that FER acts upstream of the microtubule response to stress. In fact, when perfor ming mechanical perturbations, we instead show that the expected microtubule response to stress does not require FER. We reveal that theferonia phenotype can be partially rescued by reducing tensile stress levels. Conversely, in the absence of both microtubules and FER, cells appear to swell and burst. Altogether, this shows that the microtubule response to stress acts as an independent pathway to resist stress, in parallel to FER. We propose that both pathways are required to maintain the mechanical integrity of plant cells.
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: research