On the differential divisions and preprophase microtubule bands involved in the development of stomata of Vigna sinensis L.

The manifestation of premitotic cell polarity and the resultant structural asymmetry of the differential divisions participating in the development of stomata of Vigna sinensis vary considerably. However, two morphologically distinct types of differential division were distinguished: (a) 'asymmetrical differential divisions', in which the premitotic polarization of the cell, the eccentric position of the nucleus during division and the differences in size and organization of the daughter cells are obvious; and (b) differential divisions in which the above features are inconspicuous or almost absent. The former occur in the ordinary protodermal cells, the latter in some meristemoids. The organization of a sharply demarcated preprophase microtubule band (PMB) precedes, all differential and non-differential divisions. In the first type of differential division the PMB is formed eccentrically, while in the second it may display either an approximately symmetrical or a clearly asymmetrical disposition, always indicating with surprising accuracy the sites where the succeeding cell plate will join the parent walls. The PMB foreshadowing the highly curved cell plates in meristemoids I of the mesoperigenous process, as well as in meristemoids I and II of the mesogenous one, are apposed only on one anticlinal wall and therefore do not encircle the nucleus or traverse the cell. In the symmetrical divisions of guard cell mother cells (GMC), as well as in those of protodermal cells, the PMB runs right round the internal plasmalemma surface in an equatorial position, coinciding with that of the future cell plate. In the former cells the wall abutting the cortical cytoplasm traversed by the band becomes locally thickened. The variability in the pattern of the microtubules of the band along the walls of the GMC is directly mirrored in the pattern of the thickening. It seems that in GMC the PMB mediates a directed exocytosis of dictyosome vesicles. In contrast to what is now generally accepted in dicotyledonous plants, each meristemoid I of both the mesogenous and mesoperigenous stomata in Vigna sinensis leaves does not inhibit but induces the formation of other meristemoids close to it.