Plant polarity articles from across Nature Portfolio

Rab5 GTPases deliver RopGEF8 from endosomes to the pollen plasma membrane, establishing polarity for germination. This crosstalk between trafficking and signalling GTPases is crucial for the reproductive success of flowering plants.

This study demonstrated that a PIN2-based transient polar auxin transport, through a file of elongated marginal cells (MCs), in the borders of cotyledons, underpins the formation of an auxin maximum at the tip of cotyledons. This auxin maximum contributes to the coordinated morphogenesis of the interdigitated puzzle-shaped pavement cells at the very early stage of cotyledon expansion.

A study on the PIN2 auxin exporter identifies the ROWY BRO1-domain proteins as important regulators of PIN2 sorting control as well as PIN3 abundance, which both affect auxin transport.

This Review aims to define an updated nomenclature for plasma membrane domains in plants. The authors are experts in this field who unite here in an effort to eliminate the ambiguities and confusion that have persisted until now.

At the tetrad stage, OsSRF8 interacts with OsINP1 to promote the formation of aperture plasma membrane protrusion (APMP). Then, the OsINP1-OsSRF8 protein complex recruits OsDAF1 to the APMP site and co-regulate pollen aperture formation in rice.

How do multicellular organisms integrate cell- and tissue-scale mechanical information to coordinate growth? Elliott et al. show that plant cells establish a self-regulating cell-wall-sensing module at their one-dimensional cell edges to control three-dimensional growth.

Pollen apertures are the manifestation of distinct plasma membrane domains on the pollen surface. A new study discovered two proteins in rice that are localized specifically to the aperture domains in the membrane of developing pollen and are involved in aperture formation.

Mechanical tension is shown to contribute to the establishment of the cell polarity axis in plant epidermal stem cells, which is important for regulating asymmetric cell division.