Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB, 9052 Gent, Belgium.
Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2011 Dec;23(6):686-96. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2011.09.006. Epub 2011 Sep 29.
In unicellular and multicellular organisms, cell polarity is essential for a wide range of biological processes. An important feature of cell polarity is the asymmetric distribution of proteins in or at the plasma membrane. In plants such polar localized proteins play various specific roles ranging from organizing cell morphogenesis, asymmetric cell division, pathogen defense, nutrient transport and establishment of hormone gradients for developmental patterning. Moreover, flexible respecification of cell polarities enables plants to adjust their physiology and development to environmental changes. Having evolved multicellularity independently and lacking major cell polarity mechanisms of animal cells, plants came up with alternative solutions to generate and respecify cell polarity as well as to regulate polar domains at the plasma membrane.
在单细胞和多细胞生物中，细胞极性对于广泛的生物过程至关重要。细胞极性的一个重要特征是蛋白质在质膜内或质膜上的不对称分布。在植物中，这种极性定位的蛋白质发挥着各种特定的作用，从组织细胞形态发生、不对称细胞分裂、病原体防御、营养物质运输到建立激素梯度以进行发育模式的形成。此外，细胞极性的灵活再指定使植物能够调整其生理和发育以适应环境变化。植物独立进化为多细胞生物，缺乏动物细胞的主要细胞极性机制，因此它们想出了替代方案来产生和再指定细胞极性，并调节质膜上的极性域。
