Development of stress tolerance trait through phytosterol structure modifications.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Sterols are primarily found as membrane lipid components. In mammals, cholesterol is the primary membrane sterol, while plant cells accumulate a variety of sterol molecular species ; particularly, diverse side-chain structures are prominent, and most of these sterols are found only in plants. Involvement of such plant sterols in unidentified essential cellular events, besides the brassinosteroid biosynthesis, has been repeatedly reported. However, their actual roles remain to be clarified. Here, we studied the sterol side-chain structure modifications in plant specific cellular functions and demonstrated that the loss of C24 ethylsterols resulted in the apparent arrest of cell cycle at the stage of cell plate formation. This is the first report of the involvement of C24 alkylgroup in plant specific cellular events.