Essential Role of a Kinesin-Like Protein in Arabidopsis Trichome Morphogenesis

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 94; no. 12; pp. 6261 - 6266
• Main Authors: Oppenheimer, David G., Pollock, Mary A., Vacik, Joshua, Szymanski, Daniel B., Ericson, Brad, Feldmann, Ken, Marks, M. David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10-06-1997; National Acad Sciences; National Academy of Sciences; The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
• Subjects: Acanthamoeba; Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acids; Animals; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - physiology; Arabidopsis - ultrastructure; Arabidopsis Proteins; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biological Sciences; Calmodulin-Binding Proteins - biosynthesis; Calmodulin-Binding Proteins - chemistry; Cell walls; Cellular biology; Chromosome Mapping; Cloning, Molecular; DNA; DNA, Bacterial; Drosophila; Epidermal cells; Genes, Plant; Genetic Complementation Test; Guard cells; Kinesins - biosynthesis; Kinesins - chemistry; Mesophyll cells; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Molecular Sequence Data; Morphogenesis; Myosins - chemistry; Plant cells; Plant Proteins - biosynthesis; Plant Proteins - chemistry; Plants; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Proteins; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Trichomes
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.94.12.6261

Little is known about how cell shape is controlled. We are using the morphogenesis of trichomes (plant hairs) on the plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model to study how cell shape is controlled. Wild-type Arabidopsis trichomes are large, single epidermal cells with a stalk and three or four branches, whereas in zwichel (zwi) mutants the trichomes have a shortened stalk and only two branches. To further understand the role of the ZWI gene in trichome morphogenesis we have cloned the wild-type ZWICHEL (ZWI) gene by T-DNA tagging, and report here that it encodes a member of the kinesin superfamily of microtubule motor proteins. Kinesin proteins transport diverse cellular materials in a directional manner along microtubules. Kinesin-like proteins are characterized by a highly conserved ``head'' region that comprises the motor domain, and a nonconserved ``tail'' region that is thought to participate in recognition and binding of the appropriate cargo.