Journal
CELL
Volume 149, Issue 2, Pages 439-451Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2012.02.048
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Funding
- INRA, France
- Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland
- National Science Foundation [NSF PHY05-51164]
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR-10-BLAN-1516 Mechastem]
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The presence of diffuse morphogen gradients in tissues supports a view in which growth is locally homogenous. Here we challenge this view: we used a high-resolution quantitative approach to reveal significant growth variability among neighboring cells in the shoot apical meristem, the plant stem cell niche. This variability was strongly decreased in a mutant impaired in the microtubule-severing protein katanin. Major shape defects in the mutant could be related to a local decrease in growth heterogeneity. We show that katanin is required for the cell's competence to respond to the mechanical forces generated by growth. This provides the basis for a model in which microtubule dynamics allow the cell to respond efficiently to mechanical forces. This in turn can amplify local growth-rate gradients, yielding more heterogeneous growth and supporting morphogenesis.
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