Immunofluorescence microscopy of tubulin and microtubule arrays in plant cells. III. Transition between mitotic/cytokinetic and interphase microtubule arrays.

Immunofluorescence microscopy of flowering plant root cells indicates that the earliest interphase microtubules appear during cytokinesis, radiating from the former spindle poles and subsequently from the nuclear envelope. They form networks that have microtubule focal points in the cortex underlying cell faces and in the cytoplasm between the nucleus and cortex. Cortical networks are rapidly replaced by the highly aligned array normally associated with interphase. An antibody that in animal cells identifies the location of pericentriolar material, the site of microtubule initiation, is also localized around the plant cell nuclear envelope at the time that putative early interphase microtubule networks are seen.