INTERCOURSE BETWEEN CELL WAS AND CYTOPLASM EXEMPLIFIED BY ARABINOGALACTAN PROTEINS AND CORTICAL MICROTUBULES

How does a plant cell sense and respond to the status Cell wall? Intercourse between Cell wall and cytoplasm has long been supposed to involve arabinogalactan proteins. in part because many of them are anchored to the plasma membrane. Disrupting, arabinogalactan proteins has recently been shown to disrupt the array cortical microtubules present just inside the plasma membrane. Implying that microtubules, and arabinogalactan protein,, interact. In this article. we assess possibilities for how this interaction might be mediated. First. we consider microdomains in the plasma membrane (lipid rafts). which have been alleged to link internal and external regions of the plasma membrane: however. the characteristics and even the existence of these domains remain,, controversial. Next. we point Out that disrupting the synthesis of cellulose also can disrupt microtubules and consider whether arabinogalactan proteins are part of a network linking microtubules and nascent microfibrils. Finally. we outline several signaling cascades that could transmit information from arabinogalactan proteins to microtubules through channels of cellular communication. These diverse possibilities highlight the work that remains to be done before we Call understand how plant cells communicate across their membranes.