Involvement of Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase Signalling in Plant Microtubule

Plants have developed sophisticated signalling networks that are involved in mediating developmental transitions and environmental signals. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MPKs) are a class of signalling proteins that are involved in cellular processes that help plants to detect and initiate appropriate responses to numerous development and environmental inputs. The microtubule cytoskeleton plays a pivotal role in plant development and morphogenesis, although the mechanisms that regulate the microtubule-associated proteins and microtubule functions in plant cells are not well understood. I investigated whether perturbations in the microtubule organization triggered by the MICROTUBULE ORGANIZATION] temperature-sensitive mutant (mon-i) could lead to altered transcriptional activity, with a particular interest in the genes encoding signal transduction components. I showed that perturbations in the microtubule cytoskeleton, achieved through the microtubule disruption phenotype of mon-i, led to changes in the expression of gene transcripts associated with diverse cellular processes, including changes in the expression of the PROPYZAMIDE HYPERSENSITIVE 1(PHS1) gene, a member of MPK-specific signal transduction pathway, which has been previously implicated i