Research Article 2423 The plant Spc98p homologue colocalizes with γ-tubulin at microtubule nucleation sites and is required for microtubule nucleation Mathieu Erhardt1, Virginie Stoppin-Mellet1,*, Sarah Campagne1, Jean Canaday1, Jérôme Mutterer1, Tanja Fabian2, Margret Sauter1,2, Thierry Muller1, Christine Peter1, Anne-Marie Lambert1 and Anne-Catherine Schmit1,‡ 1Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UPR 2357, Université Louis Pasteur, 12 rue du Général Zimmer F-67084, Strasbourg Cedex, France 2Institut für Allgemeine Botanik, Hamburg, Ohnhorststr. 18, D-22609 Hamburg, Germany *Present address: Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale, UMR 5019 CEA/CNRS/UJF, CEA Grenoble, 17 Avenue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9, France ‡Author for correspondence (e-mail:
[email protected]) Accepted 13 March 2002 Journal of Cell Science 115, 2423-2431 (2002) © The Company of Biologists Ltd Summary The molecular basis of microtubule nucleation is still not tobacco nuclei and in living cells. AtSpc98p-GFP also known in higher plant cells. This process is better localizes at the cell cortex. Spc98p is not associated with γ- understood in yeast and animals cells. In the yeast spindle tubulin along microtubules. These data suggest that pole body and the centrosome in animal cells, γ-tubulin multiple microtubule-nucleating sites are active in plant small complexes and γ-tubulin ring complexes, respectively, cells. Microtubule nucleation involving Spc98p-containing nucleate all microtubules. In addition to γ-tubulin, Spc98p γ-tubulin complexes could then be conserved among all or its homologues plays an essential role. We report here eukaryotes, despite differences in structure and spatial the characterization of rice and Arabidopsis homologues of distribution of microtubule organizing centers.