CYTOKINESIS IN SOMATIC PLANT-CELLS

In higher plants, cytokinesis is usually accomplished by the formation of a cell plate between daughter nuclei. This is a process of exocyto sis in which Golgi-derived vesicles containing cell wall material fuse to form a new primary cell wall bordered on either side by plasma mem brane. The cell plate expands and its edges fuse with the edges of the parent cell wall. Our understanding of this process has recently been furthered by the detailed analysis of cell plate formation in cryofix ed tissues, and by the phenotypic description of plant mutants in whic h cytokinesis is impaired. The positional cloning of one of these gene s in Arabidopsis has identified a novel syntaxin which appears to be r equired for cell plate formation.