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Expression of GFP-mTalin reveals an actin-related role for the Arabidopsis Class II formin AtFH12

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Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

Formins (FH2 proteins) are implicated in F-actin nucleation and other aspects of cytoskeletal organization. Plants possess two formin clades, relatively well-described Class I formins and so far poorly characterized Class II formins. Comparison of Class II formin genes of two Arabidopsis species, A. thaliana and A. lyrata, indicates dynamic evolution within the Class II formin clade. Disruption of an outlier A. thaliana Class II formin gene, AtFH12 (At1g42980), whose expression is induced by NaCl, produced only negligible phenotypic effects under a variety of conditions, including salt stress, suggesting functional redundancy among Class II formins. However, the same mutation massively aggravated toxic effects of the expression of a fluorescent actin marker, GFP-tagged mouse talin (GFP-mTalin), known to interfere with normal actin dynamics. Abnormal actin structures were observed in atfh12 mutants expressing GFP-mTalin as compared to wild type. This not only demonstrates an actin-associated function for AtFH12, but also documents the feasibility of using the heterologous actin marker to “stress-test” the actin cytoskeleton in phenotyping “weak“ actin related mutant alleles.

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Abbreviations

FH2:

formin homology 2

LatB:

latrunculin B

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Viničná 5, CZ-12843, Prague, Czech Republic

    F. Cvrčková, M. Grunt & V. Žárský

  2. Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojová 263, CZ-16502, Prague, Czech Republic

    V. Žárský

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  1. F. Cvrčková
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  2. M. Grunt
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  3. V. Žárský
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Correspondence to F. Cvrčková.

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Acknowledgements: We appreciate the possibility to use Arabidopsis lyrata sequence data produced by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in collaboration with the user community. We thank Dr. Tijs Ketelaar for the GFP:mTalin line and Marta Čadyová for technical assistance. This work has been financially supported by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic MSM 0021620858, Charles University SVV 263210 and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic P305/10/0433 projects.

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Cvrčková, F., Grunt, M. & Žárský, V. Expression of GFP-mTalin reveals an actin-related role for the Arabidopsis Class II formin AtFH12. Biol Plant 56, 431–440 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-012-0071-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-012-0071-9

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