ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2011
Universal rule for the symmetric division of plant cells.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers.
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Who cites it
95 citing papers in PubMed, 213 citations in OpenAlex.
- Inferring cell division from cell shape.The Plant cell · 2026Article
- Force-responsive symmetric cell divisions orient stomata along global tissue axes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- 3D imaging reveals robustness and plasticity of cell division in rice early embryogenesis.Plant & cell physiology · 2026Article
- Spiral phyllotaxis in the moss Physcomitrium patens emerges from simple division rules of the apical cell.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- The actin cytoskeleton is required to maintain plant cell division orientation against cellular geometry.Science advances · 2026Article
- 3D geometry and mechanics of a single apical stem cell ensure helically symmetric plant body in multicellular models.Frontiers in plant science · 2026Article
- Physcomitrium LATERAL SUPPRESSOR genes promote formative cell divisions to produce germ cell lineages in both male and female gametangia.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Longitudinal growth of the Saccharina kelp embryo depends on actin filaments that control the formation of a corset-like structure composed of alginate.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mechanical forces exerted on floral primordia with a novel experimental system modify floral development in Arabidopsis thaliana.Journal of plant research · 2024Article
- A transient radial cortical microtubule array primes cell division inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- The dynamics and biophysics of shape formation: Common themes in plant and animal morphogenesis.Developmental cell · 2023Review
- Stiffness transitions in new walls post-cell division differ betweenProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Computer models of cell polarity establishment in plants.Plant physiology · 2023Review
- Approximate simulation of cortical microtubule models using dynamical graph grammars.Physical biology · 2023Article
- Cortical polarity ensures its own asymmetric inheritance in the stomatal lineage to pattern the leaf surface.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Tissues as networks of cells: towards generative rules of complex organ development.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Review
- Reliable and robust control of nucleus centering is contingent on nonequilibrium force patterns.iScience · 2023Article
- Article
- Particle-based model shows complex rearrangement of tissue mechanical properties are needed for roots to grow in hard soil.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- GRAS transcription factors regulate cell division planes in moss overriding the default rule.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The division of eukaryotic cells involves the assembly of complex cytoskeletal structures to exert the forces required for chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. In plants, empirical evidence suggests that tensional forces within the cytoskeleton cause cells to divide along the plane that minimizes the surface area of the cell plate (Errera's rule) while creating daughter cells of equal size. However, exceptions to Errera's rule cast doubt on whether a broadly applicable rule can be formulated for plant cell division. Here, we show that the selection of the plane of division involves a competition between alternative configurations whose geometries represent local area minima. We find that the probability of observing a particular division configuration increases inversely with its relative area according to an exponential probability distribution known as the Gibbs measure. Moreover, a comparison across land plants and their most recent algal ancestors confirms that the probability distribution is widely conserved and independent of cell shape and size. Using a maximum entropy formulation, we show that this empirical division rule is predicted by the dynamics of the tense cytoskeletal elements that lead to the positioning of the preprophase band. Based on the fact that the division plane is selected from the sole interaction of the cytoskeleton with cell shape, we posit that the new rule represents the default mechanism for plant cell division when internal or external cues are absent.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.