ATP level and caffeine efficiency on cytokinesis inhibition in plants.

Plant cytokinesis appears to be a topographically organized process of exocytosis. Golgi vesicles which contain cell wall precursors are translocated during telophase, by interzonal microtubules, to the equatorial region of the mitotic apparatus where they fuse with each other giving rise to the new cell wall. Caffeine inhibits cytokinesis by hindering Golgi vesicle coalescence. The present results demonstrate that treatments which increase the cellular ATP level (adenosine, cycloheximide and anisomycin) counteract caffein-induced cytokinesis inhibition in meristem cells of onion root tips (Allium cepa L.), while treatments which decrease ATP level potentiate this caffeine effect (dinitrophenol, fluoroacetate, low oxygen tensions, etc.). We postulate that caffeine, in competition with the cellular ATP level, blocks cell plate formation by inhibiting a certain ATPase activity required for membrane fusion of Golgi vesicles.