High-throughput characterization of cortical microtubule arrays response to anisotropic tensile stress.

Background: Plants can perceive and respond to mechanical signals. For instance, cortical microtubule (CMT) arrays usually reorganize following the predicted maximal tensile stress orientation at the cell and tissue level. While research in the last few years has started to uncover some of the mechanisms mediating these responses, much remains to be discovered, including in most cases the actual nature of the mechanosensors.

External Mechanical Cues Reveal a Katanin-Independent Mechanism behind Auxin-Mediated Tissue Bending in Plants.

Tissue folding is a central building block of plant and animal morphogenesis. In dicotyledonous plants, hypocotyl folds to form hooks after seedling germination that protects their aerial stem cell niche during emergence from soil. Auxin response factors and auxin transport are reported to play a key role in this process.

Dynamic measurement of cytosolic pH and [NO] uncovers the role of the vacuolar transporter AtCLCa in cytosolic pH homeostasis.

Ion transporters are key players of cellular processes. The mechanistic properties of ion transporters have been well elucidated by biophysical methods. Meanwhile, the understanding of their exact functions in cellular homeostasis is limited by the difficulty of monitoring their activity in vivo.

Polar expedition: mechanisms for protein polar localization.

Most cells show asymmetry in their shape or in the organization of their components that results in poles with different properties. This is a fundamental feature that participates in modulating the development of an organism and its responses to external stimuli. In plants, a number of proteins that are important for developmental and physiological processes have been shown to display polar localization.

Cav3.2 T-type calcium channels shape electrical firing in mouse Lamina II neurons.

The T-type calcium channel, Cav3.2, is necessary for acute pain perception, as well as mechanical and cold allodynia in mice. Being found throughout sensory pathways, from excitatory primary afferent neurons up to pain matrix structures, it is a promising target for analgesics.