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Updated: May 2, 2026

Measuring Plant Cell Wall Extension Creep Induced by Acidic pH and by Alpha-Expansin
Published on: March 11, 2009
New insights on plant cell elongation: a role for acetylcholine
Gian-Pietro Di Sansebastiano1, Silvia Fornaciari2, Fabrizio Barozzi3
1DiSTeBA (Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali), University of Salento, Campus ECOTEKNE, Lecce 73100, Italy. gp.disansebastiano@unisalento.it.
Abstract:
We investigated the effect of auxin and acetylcholine on the expression of the tomato expansin gene LeEXPA2, a specific expansin gene expressed in elongating tomato hypocotyl segments. Since auxin interferes with clathrin-mediated endocytosis, in order to regulate cellular and developmental responses we produced protoplasts from tomato elongating hypocotyls and followed the endocytotic marker, FM4-64, internalization in response to treatments. Tomato protoplasts were observed during auxin and acetylcholine treatments after transient expression of chimerical markers of volume-control related compartments such as vacuoles. Here we describe the contribution of auxin and acetylcholine to LeEXPA2 expression regulation and we support the hypothesis that a possible subcellular target of acetylcholine signal is the vesicular transport, shedding some light on the characterization of this small molecule as local mediator in the plant physiological response.
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