Technical advance: spatio-temporal analysis of mitotic activity with a labile cyclin-GUS fusion protein

Plant growth responds rapidly to developmental and environmental signals, but the underlying changes in cell division activity are poorly understood. A labile cyclin-GUS reporter was developed to facilitate the spatio-temporal analysis of cell division patterns. The chimeric reporter protein is turned over every cell cycle and hence its histochemical activity accurately reports individual mitotic cells. Using Arabidopsis plants transformed with cyclin-GUS, we visualized patterns of mitotic activity in wounded leaves which suggest a role for cell division in structural reinforcement.