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Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on April 15, 2009
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcp055
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Application of Lifeact reveals F-actin dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana and the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha

Atsuko Era1, Motoki Tominaga2, Kazuo Ebine1, Chie Awai2, Chieko Saito2, Kimitsune Ishizaki3, Katsuyuki T. Yamato3, Takayuki Kohchi3, Akihiko Nakano1,2 and Takashi Ueda1,*

1Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
2Molecular Membrane Biology Laboratory, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
3Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan

*Corresponding author: Dr. Takashi Ueda, Ph.D. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan, Tel +81-3-5841-4471, Fax +81-3-5841-7613, E-mail tueda{at}biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp


  Abstract

Actin plays fundamental roles in a wide array of plant functions, including cell division, cytoplasmic streaming, cell morphogenesis, and organelle motility. Imaging the actin cytoskeleton in living cells is a powerful methodology for studying these important phenomena. Several useful probes for live imaging of filamentous actin (F-actin) have been developed, but new versatile probes are still needed. Here, we report the application of a new probe called Lifeact for visualizing F-actin in plant cells. Lifeact is a short peptide comprising 17 amino acids that was derived from yeast Abp140p. We used a Lifeact-Venus fusion protein for staining F-actin in Arabidopsis thaliana and were able to observe dynamic rearrangements of the actin meshwork in root hair cells. We also used Lifeact-Venus to visualize the actin cytoskeleton in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha; this revealed unique and dynamic F-actin motility in liverwort cells. Our results suggest that Lifeact could be a useful tool for studying the actin cytoskeleton in wide range of plant lineages.

Keywords: Actin - Arabidopsis thaliana - Lifeact - Liverwort - Marchantia polymorpha

(Received April 2, 2009; Accepted April 10, 2009)
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