Arun Sampathkumar: Mechano-chemical basis of cellular ad tissue scale morphogenesis

Mechanical forces control development in plants and animals, acting as cues in pattern formation and as the driving force of morphogenesis. Plant cells experience mechanical stress generated internally due to turgor or externally due to the growth of neighboring cells. Such mechanical stresses influence microtubule cytoskeleton ordering with microtubules aligning along the principal direction of tensile mechanical stresses. Microtubules facilitates deposition of stiff cellulose microfirbrils, that in turn resists such forces ensuring that overall cellular stress is maintained. Puzzle shaped epidermal pavement cells serve as an excellent model cell type to identify molecular components that are involved in sensing and transducing mechanical signals in plants. Investigating such mechanisms ultimately helps us understand how mechanical stresses orchestrate cell and tissue morphology. Using interdisciplinary approaches involving quantitative live cell imaging, computational modeling, molecular and mechanical perturbations, we show that molecular assemblies residing at the interface of the cell membrane and the cell wall play an important role in regulating microtubule response to mechanical stimuli. In addition to this I will present more recent work on understanding how mechanical stresses influence aspect of floral morphogenesis.