Identifying the "molecular motor" that guides cell plate formation
February 17, 2025
A mechanism essential for continuous cell division during plant organogenesis
A joint study by Nagoya University and the RIKEN CSRS has identified a molecular motor that promotes the formation of the "cell plate" during plant cell division. This discovery provides key insights into how plants acquired the cytokinesis mechanism during evolution.
At the final stage of cell division, plants build an internal "wall" called the cell plate, which separates the two daughter cells. However, the detailed mechanism of how cell plate materials are transported to the correct location has long remained a mystery.
Using genome editing, live-cell imaging and electron microscopy techniques in the moss Physcomitrium patens, this collaborative study revealed that the molecular motor "kinesin-12" transports cell plate materials and accumulates them at the division plane, leading to cell plate formation. This finding solves a long-standing mystery and offers important insights into how plants have adapted their cell division mechanisms during evolution.
- Original article
- Nature Plants doi: 10.1038/s41477-025-01909-x
- M. Yamada, H. J. Matsuyama, N. Takeda-Kamiya, M. Sato, K. Toyooka,
- "Class II kinesin-12 facilitates cell plate formation by transporting cell plate materials in the phragmoplast".
- Contact
- Kiminori Toyooka
Senior Technical Scientist
Mass Spectrometry and Microscopy Unit
