Chemically induced phenotype plasticity in the unicellular zygnematophyte, Penium margaritaceum

Phenotypic plasticity allows a plant cell to alter its structure and function in response to external pressure. This adaptive phenomenon has also been important in the evolution of plants including the emergence of land plants from a streptophyte alga. Penium margaritaceum is a unicellular zygnematophyte (i.e., the group of streptophyte algae that is sister to land plants) that was employed in order to study phenotypic plasticity with a focus on the role of subcellular expansion centers and the cell wall in this process. Live cell fluorescence labeling, immunofluorescence labeling, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy showed significant subcellular changes and alterations to the cell wall. When treated with the actin-perturbing agent, cytochalasin E, cytokinesis is arrested and cells are transformed into pseudo-filaments made of up to eight or more cellular units. When treated with the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, roscovitine, cells converted to a unique phenotype with a narrow isthmus zone.