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DEVELOPMENT AND HORMONE ACTION

Auxin Transport Synchronizes the Pattern of Cell Division in a Tobacco Cell Line¹

Biologisches Institut II, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Schänzlestrasse 1, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany (P.C., P.N.); and Nonlinear Dynamics, Institute of Physics, University of Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, D–14469 Potsdam, Germany (B.B.)

The open morphogenesis of plants requires coordination of patterning by intercellular signals. The tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv Virginia Bright Italia) cell line VBI-0 provides a simple model system to study the role of intercellular communication in patterning. In this cell line, singular cells divide axially to produce linear cell files of distinct polarity. The trigger for this axial division is exogenous auxin. When frequency distributions of files are constructed over the number of cells per file during the exponential phase of the culture, even numbers are found to be frequent, whereas files consisting of uneven numbers of cells are rare. We can simulate these distributions with a mathematical model derived from nonlinear dynamics, which describes a chain of cell-division oscillators where elementary oscillators are coupled unidirectionally and where the number of oscillators is not conserved. The model predicts several nonintuitive properties of our experimental system. For instance, files consisting of six cells are more frequent than expected from a strictly binary division system. More centrally, the model predicts a polar transport of the coordinating signal. We therefore tested the patterns obtained after treatment with 1-N-naphthylphthalamic acid, an inhibitor of auxin efflux carriers. Using low concentrations of 1-N-naphthylphthalamic acid that leave cell division and axiality of division unaltered, we observe that the frequencies of files with even and uneven cell numbers are equalized. Our findings are discussed in the context of auxin transport as synchronizing signal in cell patterning.

¹ This work was supported by the Volkswagen-Foundation Nachwuchsgruppen-Programme (grants to P.N. and B.B.).

^* Corresponding author; e-mail prisca.campanoni{at}biologie.unifreiburg.de; fax 49–761–203–2612.

Received June 2, 2003; returned for revision July 12, 2003; accepted August 17, 2003.

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