About the Cover
The cytoskeleton, a dynamic framework of microtubules, actin microfilaments, and associated proteins, coordinates many fundamental cellular processes. The actin cytoskeleton, in particular, is implicated in vesicle and organelle transport; responses to environmental stimuli; and, as indicated on the cover and in two papers in this issue, cellular morphogenesis. Indeed, actin arrays--stained with fluorescent phalloidin--are apparent in the recently germinated maize pollen grain shown on the cover. This observation is developed on pages 2349-2363 by Gibbon et al., who use the toxin latrunculin B to demonstrate that a characteristic apical organization of actin is critical for tip growth of extending maize pollen tubes. Similarly, on pages 2331-2347, Szymanski et al. take a pharmacological approach to demonstrate the importance of actin during trichome formation in Arabidopsis, and they show that defects in actin organization are the earliest phenotype that can be detected in a class of Arabidopsis distorted trichome mutants.
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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Plant Biologists
