Back

In situ architecture of plasmodesmata suggests mechanisms controlling intercellular exchange

Dickmanns, M.; Pöge, M.; Xu, P.; Gombos, S.; Miras, M.; Plitzko, J. M.; Simon, R.; Schulze, W. X.; Frommer, W. B.; Baumeister, W.

2025-07-25 cell biology
10.1101/2025.07.24.666190 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Plasmodesmata are nanoscopic channels that traverse plant cell walls, establishing membrane and cytoplasmic continuity between adjacent cells to enable direct intercellular exchange. Although numerous components have been identified, their molecular organization and roles in controlling passage remain unclear. Here, we used cryo-electron tomography to resolve the in situ architecture of plasmodesmata in Physcomitrium patens across tissues and physiological states. We show how callose deposition at the cell wall shapes channel architecture to modulate permeability and identify helical protein assemblies formed by Multiple C2 domain and Transmembrane Proteins (MCTPs), which scaffold a central endoplasmic reticulum tubule and tether it to the plasma membrane. These findings define core architectural features of plasmodesmata and establish a structural framework for understanding how membrane, protein and cell wall components coordinate intercellular connectivity in plants.

Published in Nature Plants (predicted rank #13) · training set

Matching journals

The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.