Amyloplast sedimentation dynamics in maize columella cells support a new model for the gravity-sensing apparatus of roots.

Quantitative analysis of statolith sedimentation behavior was accomplished using videomicroscopy of living columella cells of corn (Zea mays) roots, which displayed no systematic cytoplasmic streaming. Following 90 degrees rotation of the root, the statoliths moved downward along the distal wall and then spread out along the bottom with an average velocity of 1.7 microm min(-1). When statolith trajectories traversed the complete width or length of the cell, they initially moved horizontally toward channel-initiation sites and then moved vertically through the channels to the lower side of the reoriented cell where they again dispersed. These statoliths exhibited a significantly lower average velocity than those sedimenting on distal-to-side trajectories. In addition, although statoliths undergoing distal-to-side sedimentation began at their highest velocity and slowed monotonically as they approached the lower cell membrane, statoliths crossing the cell's central region remained slow initially and accelerated to maximum speed once they reached a channel. The statoliths accelerated sooner, and the channeling effect was less pronounced in roots treated with cytochalasin D. Parallel ultrastructural studies of high-pressure frozen-freeze-substituted columella cells suggest that the low-resistance statolith pathway in the cell periphery corresponds to the sharp interface between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-rich cortical and the ER-devoid central region of these cells. The central region is also shown to contain an actin-based cytoskeletal network in which the individual, straight, actin-like filaments are randomly distributed. To explain these findings as well as the results of physical simulation experiments, we have formulated a new, tensegrity-based model of gravity sensing in columella cells. This model envisages the cytoplasm as pervaded by an actin-based cytoskeletal network that is denser in the ER-devoid central region than in the ER-rich cell cortex and is linked to stretch receptors in the plasma membrane. Sedimenting statoliths are postulated to produce a directional signal by locally disrupting the network and thereby altering the balance of forces acting on the receptors in different plasma membrane regions.