Thigmotropism

Abstract: Plants must sense and respond to diverse stimuli to optimize the architecture of their root system for water and nutrient scavenging and anchorage. We have therefore analyzed how information from two of these stimuli, touch and gravity, are integrated to direct root growth. In Arabidopsis thaliana, touch stimulation provided by a glass barrier placed across the direction of growth caused the root to form a step-like growth habit with bends forming in the central and later the distal elongation zones. This response led to the main root axis growing parallel to, but not touching the obstacle, whilst the root cap maintained contact with the barrier. Removal of the graviperceptive columella cells of the root cap using laser ablation reduced the bending response of the distal elongation zone. Similarly, although the roots of the gravisensing impaired pgm1-1 mutant grew along the barrier at the same average angle as wild-type, this angle became more variable with time. These observations imply a constant gravitropic re-setting of the root tip response to touch stimulation from the barrier. In wild-type plants, transient touch stimulation of root cap cells, but not other regions of the root, inhibited both subsequent gravitropic growth and amyloplast sedimentation in the columella. Taken together, these results suggest that the cells of the root cap sense touch stimuli and their subsequent signaling acts on the columella cells to modulate their graviresponse. This interaction of touch and gravity signaling would then direct root growth to avoid obstacles in the soil while generally maintaining downward growth.

Abstract: Touch and gravity are two of the many stimuli that plants must integrate to generate an appropriate growth response. Due to the mechanical nature of both of these signals, shared signal transduction elements could well form the basis of the cross-talk between these two sensory systems. However, touch stimulation must elicit signaling events across the plasma membrane whereas gravity sensing is thought to represent transformation of an internal force, amyloplast sedimentation, to signal transduction events. In addition, factors such as turgor pressure and presence of the cell wall may also place unique constraints on these plant mechanosensory systems. Even so, the candidate signal transduction elements in both plant touch and gravity sensing, changes in Ca2+, pH and membrane potential, do mirror the known ionic basis of signaling in animal mechanosensory cells. Distinct spatial and temporal signatures of Ca2+ ions may encode information about the different mechanosignaling stimuli. Signals such as Ca2+ waves or action potentials may also rapidly transfer information perceived in one cell throughout a tissue or organ leading to the systemic reactions characteristic of plant touch and gravity responses. Longer-term growth responses are likely sustained via changes in gene expression and asymmetries in compounds such as inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) and calmodulin. Thus, it seems likely that plant mechanoperception involves both spatial and temporal encoding of information at all levels, from the cell to the whole plant. Defining this patterning will be a critical step towards understanding how plants integrate information from multiple mechanical stimuli to an appropriate growth response.

Abstract: The clinical pathogen Candida albicans is a budding yeast that is capable of forming a range of polarized and expanded cell shapes from pseudohyphae to true nonconstricted hyphae. Filamentous forms consist of contiguous uninucleated compartments that are partitioned by septa. It has long been held that the so-called "dimorphic transition" from a budding to a filamentous form may aid the fungus to penetrate epithelia and may therefore be a virulence factor. This review summarized new information regarding the physiology and ecology of hyphal growth in C. albicans. New evidence has demonstrated that hyphae of C. albicans have a sense of touch so that they grow along grooves and through pores (thigmotropism). This may aid infiltration of epithelial surfaces during tissue invasion. Hyphae are also aerotropic and can form helices when contacting solid surfaces. Growing evidence supports the view that hyphal growth is a response to nutrient deprivation, especially low nitrogen and that filamentous growth enables the fungus to forage for nutrients more effectively. Further insights into the growth of C. albicans have come from the analysis of genes and mutations of Saccharomyces which have begun to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying the mechanisms of bud site selection, cell polarity and signal transduction pathways that lead to pseudohyphal development in this and other organisms. For example, it is now clear that a MAP-kinase cascade, homologous to the mating pathway in Saccharomyces, regulates filamentous growth in both fungi. However, this must be only one of several overlapping or separate signal transduction pathways for hyphal development because filamentous growth still occurs in mutants of Candida and Saccharomyces which are blocked in this pathway. Cell cycle analyses have shown that hyphal phase cell cycle of Candida is distinct from that in budding and pseudohyphal formation and so pseudohyphal growth of Saccharomyces is not a true model of germ tube growth in Candida. Pseudohyphal growth in both Candida and Saccharomyces involves synchronous division of mother cells and their daughters. In contrast, during germ tube growth of Candida, cytoplasm is unequally partitioned at cytokinesis so that apical cells inherit more cytoplasm and sub-apical cells have a single nucleus but are extensively vacuolated. As a result, apical cells grow and divide while sub-apical cells are apparently arrested in the cell cycle until they can regenerate sufficient cytoplasm to re-enter the cell cycle. Although current studies still fall short of verifying the status of yeast-hypha dimorphism as a virulence factor, they suggest that the cell biology of germ tube growth of C. albicans is well suited for the invasive growth of the fungus in vivo.

Abstract: Hyphal development in the dimorphic pathogenic fungus Candida albicans is thought to facilitate the primary invasion of surface epithelia during superficial infections. When mycelia were grown on Nuclepore membrane filters that were placed over serum-containing agar, the hyphae grew over the membrane surface and through the pores thereby crossing to the other side of the membrane. Hyphae that did not contact the lip of a pore did not enter it. The response was likely to be due to contact guidance (thigmotropism) and not chemotropism towards the nutrients since hyphae growing on the underside of the membrane also entered the pores then grew away from the underlying nutrient agar. The response therefore seems to be due to sensation of the substrate topography, and tropic movement in relation to changes in contour. This behaviour may enable the hyphae to penetrate epithelia at microscopic wound sites, membrane invaginations and other foci where the integrity of the epithelium is weak.