Plasmodesmata in Arabidopsis thaliana suspension cells

A current challenge in plant biology is to identify the structural and functional components of plasmodesmata (PDs). The use of plant tissue as a source material for plasmodesmal characterisation has had limited success, so we have explored the frequency and features of PDs occurring in suspension cell cultures of Arabidopsis thaliana. This material has the advantages of homogeneity, quantity, and ease of disruption. Using light and electron microscopy and immunostaining for callose and calreticulin, we showed that suspension cells laid down abundant PDs in division walls, and that vestiges of these structures were retained as half PDs even when the cell-to-cell contacts were disrupted during culture growth. Although callose was a reliable marker for PD distribution, which was deposited in an organised collar around the neck of PDs, it was not abundant in unstressed cells. Calreticulin and the chemical stain 3,3'-dihexyloxacarbocyanine iodide also provided useful markers when monitoring PDs in cell wall preparations by light microscopy. Purified cell walls were shown to be virtually free of contamination from cytoplasmic components, except for the presence of small amounts of cortical endoplasmic reticulum attached to PDs. Hence, clean cell walls from A. thaliana suspension cells provide a valuable resource for a proteomic approach to the analysis of plasmodesmal components.