About the Cover
In 1958, Roelofsen first hypothesized that cellulose biosynthesis involves macromolecular structures associated with the ends of growing cellulose microfibrils. Two decades after Roelofsen put forward his hypothesis, putative cellulose-synthesizing complexes-now termed rosette terminal complexes (TCs)-were discovered in plant cells; however, direct proof that cellulose-synthesizing complexes are components of rosette TCs has been lacking. Now, on pages 2075-2085, Kimura et al. employ a combined freeze-fracture/immunolocalization method to place a critical piece into the 40-year-old puzzle, showing that anti-cellulose synthase antibodies specifically label rosette TCs. The cover shows a freeze-fracture image of cotton primary cell wall microfibrils (background, in blue); a cartoon of a rosette TC (center, in red) with attached primary and secondary antibodies (in yellow and green, respectively); and four rosette TCs labeled with gold-conjugated secondary antibodies to the cellulose synthase antibody (black-and-white insets).
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Copyright © 2007 by the American Society of Plant Biologists
