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PMID: 31142740 Published · epublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Are microtubules tension sensors?

Nature communications ·Vol. 10 ·No. 1 ·2019-00-29 ·Pages 2360

Hamant O, Inoue D, Bouchez D, Dumais J, Mjolsness E

Abstract

Mechanical signals play many roles in cell and developmental biology. Several mechanotransduction pathways have been uncovered, but the mechanisms identified so far only address the perception of stress intensity. Mechanical stresses are tensorial in nature, and thus provide dual mechanical information: stress magnitude and direction. Here we propose a parsimonious mechanism for the perception of the principal stress direction. In vitro experiments show that microtubules are stabilized under tension. Based on these results, we explore the possibility that such microtubule stabilization operates in vivo, most notably in plant cells where turgor-driven tensile stresses exceed greatly those observed in animal cells.

MeSH Terms
Cell Wall In Vitro Techniques Mechanotransduction, Cellular/physiology Microtubules/physiology Plant Cells Stress, Mechanical Tensile Strength/physiology
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Hamant Olivier ORCID
Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Université de Lyon, UCB Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, INRA, CNRS, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364, Lyon Cedex 07, France. olivier.hamant@ens-lyon.fr.
Inoue Daisuke
Cell and Plant Physiology Laboratory, CytoMorpho Lab, CEA, Biosciences and Biotechnology Institute of Grenoble, 38054, Grenoble, France.
Bouchez David
Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, INRA, AgroParisTech, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, 78000, Versailles, France.
Dumais Jacques ORCID
Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar, Region V, Chile.
Mjolsness Eric
Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697-3435, USA.
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Article Info
Journal
Nature communications
Abbr.
Nat Commun
ISSN
2041-1723
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-10207-y
Email
olivier.hamant@ens-lyon.fr
Published
2019-00-29
Epub
2019-00-29
Pages
2360
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
101528555
PMCID
PMC6541610
Subset
IM
Grants
Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) · RGP0023/2018 · International
EC · EC Seventh Framework Programm · FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013))
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10207-y PMC Full Text View journal details
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