Transcriptome comparison of tobacco cell cultures in various stages of their life cycle
Plant tissue repair is essential for survival, yet unlike mobile animal cells, rigid cell walls anchor plant cells in place. Here we show how plants reorganize damaged tissue through active cellular remodeling. We demonstrate that wounded tissues enhance cell-to-cell contacts, a process crucially coordinated by actin and the cell wall component pectin. We further show that the extent of cell-to-cell contact directly governs cell division potential in the root meristem, highlighting the vital necessity of physical connection for subsequent growth and repair. To complement these in situ findings and understand the cell-to-cell contact mechanism, we integrated single-cell analyses and RNA-seq in a tobacco cells and identified critical players in this process. Overall design: To compare transcriptomic profiles of tobacco BY-2 cell culture during its life cycle, we isolated total RNA from cells harvested at the early exponential (1 day old) and stationary (7 and 10 day old) stages of their growth cycle, three replicas for each sample group.