Organization of the cortical cytoskeleton guides the growth and morphogenesis of organisms, from bacteria to higher plants, that depend on cell walls. By positioning wall-building enzymes, the cytoskeleton acts as an interior scaffold to direct construction of the cell's exterior. In plants, environmental and hormonal signals that modulate cell growth cause reorganization of cortical microtubule arrays. These arrays do not appear to be remodeled by moving individual microtubules, but rather by rules that govern how microtubules are assembled or disassembled. In this Research Article, we investigate the mechanism by which blue light, an important signal from the environment, causes a rapid 90° reorientation of cortical arrays in growing cells of the plant axis.
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