Calcium gradients in tip growing plant cells visualized by chlorotetracycline fluorescence

摘要

With chlorotetracycline (CTC)-fluorescence a tip-to-base Ca2+gradient is visualized in all tested, tip-growing plant cells: pollen tubes ofLilium longiflorum, root hairs ofLepidium sativum, moss caulonema ofFunaria hygrometrica, fungal hyphae ofAchlyaand in the algaAcetabularia mediterranea. The fluorescence gradients in the different species vary in intensity and extension. Sometimes a punctate mobile CTC-fluorescence, in the size range of mitochondria, is observed. Bursting cells lose their fluorescence rapidly, indicating a cytoplasmic localization of the gradient. Only inAcetabulariais the wall also fluorescent with CTC. The results are interpreted as evidence for a general role of a calcium gradient in tip growth.