Meetings of the Royal Botanical Society of The Netherlands

Actin binding proteins (ABPs) in animal cells serve a variety of functions: maintaining cell shape and mechanical properties, regulation of vesiclemembrane interactions, coupling actin filaments to each other, vesicles and organelles, anchoring actin to integral membrane proteins, regulation of actin filament formation, transport along actin filaments and involvement in signal transduction pathways. We began our studies by localizing spectrin-like proteins in plant cells. These were identified using commercially available antibodies directed towards animal spectrin (two directed against human red blood cells and one against chicken red blood cells). With all three antibodies, positive reactions were found with cells, tissues and membrane fractions of various origins such as potato protoplasts, suspension cells and developing somatic embryos of carrot, embryogenic callus of maize, root tips of maize and bean and inflorescences of cauliflower.