Plant tubulins : a melting pot for basic questions and promising applications.

Two recent results emerging from very different experiences exemplify the great importance of the plant cytoskeleton and microtubules (MTs). Attempts to isolate morphogenetic genes by screening for embryogenesis mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana did not uncover the expected homeotic genes but rather genes that are related to the formation of the cell plate or the simmetry of cell division. Decades of continuous application of dinitroaniline herbicides used against weeds in cotton, soybean, wheat and oilseed crops has resulted in the selcetion of resistance against these compounds. In one of these weeds, goosegrass, the molecular cause of this resistance has been uncovered recently and shown to be linked to a mutation in the coding eqeunce of alpha-tubulin. So these two apparent distant findings stress the ame point : microtubules are fundamental structures deeply involved in plant growth and development. Despite this, so far plant MTs have been substantially neglected as tools for applications in modern plant biotechnology. This nonchalance is both undeserved and astonishing since MTs represent versatile tools for the manipulation of plant morphogenesis and development