Format: ORAL

Bellandi A (*1), Lionnet C (1), Faulkner C. (2), Hamant O (1)

* presenting author 1 RDP Laboratory, ENS Lyon (Lyon, France) 2 John Innes Centre (Norwich, UK)

When responding to various stimuli plants couple cellular responses to intercellular ones, leading local stimuli to affect characteristics of tissues and organs. Upon wound and touch, for example, plants respond with increasing apoplastic glutamate levels and increasing cytoplasmic calcium levels travelling across tissues and organs in a wave-like manner. Intriguingly, it is unknown how glutamate is released upon mechanical stimulation and what the implications of this release are in the context of mechanosensing and mechanotransduction. Microtubules are key in defining tissue mechanical properties, and it is well documented that they can dynamically respond to changes in stress patterns. However, how microtubules reorient in response to mechanical stress it is not known. We hypothesise that glutamate could affect microtubule dynamics and properties via posttranslational modification (glutamylation) of tubulin, therefore representing the missing link between mechanosensing and microtubule behaviour. To test this, we investigate levels of tubulin glutamylation in plants, mechanisms of glutamate release upon touch and effects of glutamate on microtubule dynamics.