Plants are either straight with transverse microtubules (left), or helical thanks to slanted microtubules (right).

Hashimoto/Macmillan

Plant stems twist and turn with the help of aberrant microtubule structures, according to results from Siripong Thitamadee, Kazuko Tuchihara, and Takashi Hashimoto (Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Japan).

The insights come from studies of Arabidopsis thaliana, which normally grows straight. Hashimoto's team isolated lefty1 and lefty2—which have left-handed helical growth—as suppressors of an existing right-handed helical growth mutant. The new mutants have an identical change in either TUA6 or TUA4—two of the plant's α-tubulin genes.

The change is near the interface with β-tubulin. The disturbed interface may produce the altered angle of microtubules seen in the mutants. Cortical microtubules are normally found running directly across the cells, but the mutant microtubules form in a skewed right-handed helix. This should alter the direction of...

The Rockefeller University Press
2002
The Rockefeller University Press
2002
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