title: Symplastic communication in organ formation and tissue patterning.
abstract: Communication between cells is a crucial step to coordinate organ formation and tissue patterning. In plants, the intercellular transport of metabolites and signalling molecules occur symplastically through membranous structures (named plasmodesmata) that traverse the cell wall to connect the cytoplasm and endoplasmic reticulum of neighbouring cells. This review aims to highlight the importance of symplastic communication in plant development. We revisit current literature reporting the effects of changing plasmodesmata in cell morphogenesis, organ initiation and meristem maintenance and comment on recent work involving the identification of novel plasmodesmata regulators and of mobile developmental proteins and RNA molecules. New opportunities for unravelling the dynamic regulation and function of plasmodesmata are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Otero
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK; Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 65, Helsinki FIN-00014, Finland.
authors.forename: Yrjo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Helariutta
authors.affiliation: Centre for Plant Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Electronic address: y.benitez-alfonso@leeds.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Yoselin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Benitez-Alfonso
mesh_terms: D001692:Biological Transport; D063245:Plant Development; D031425:Plasmodesmata / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction