How cells measure symmetry: nuclear positioning in plants

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Michael Nick
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269043410

Plant cells are endowed with an innate directionality that regulates their morphogenesis. In a tissue context, they adjust this directionality to minimise mechanical tensions. There is a debate dating back for almost a century, whether they use mechanical or chemical cues to explore their environment and to align their directionality. In a real tissue, it is difficult to separate biophysics from biochemistry. We have now generated an experimental model, by which we can induce plant cells that have been stripped from their directionality (by chemical removal of their cell wall) to regenerate a directionality de-novo. We have, further, succeeded to integrate this model into a microsystemic device, where we confront such tabula rasa cells with a microgeometrical cue (using rectangular microvessels arranged in a microfluidic set-up). The project uses this system in combination with PALM microscopy to test the model that the movement of the nucleus (guided by cytoskeleton and specific kinesins) acts as primordial event for the induction of polarity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants