Clive Lloyd

Project Leader

Cell & Developmental Biology

Contact details

clive.lloyd@jic.ac.uk

Research interests

The role of microtubules in plant growth and form

I study the processes that help regulate the shape of plant cells. The form of a plant is dependent upon cell walls, both the orientation of the new cross-wall that divides cells, and the side-walls that stretch as cells undergo directional expansion. My group studies the different arrays of microtubules involved in these key morphogenetic processes.

The microtubule array underlying the expanding side-wall is large and dynamic and we are investigating the principles by which such arrays can self-organize and reorganize in the absence of a single, fixed microtubule organizing centre. We have therefore developed ways of following the dynamic behaviour of microtubules over long periods. This has revealed that cortical microtubules undergo surprising rotary migrations and we are studying how this affects the structure of the cell wall.

We also study microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) and have identified several novel MAPs by proteomics. One of them, AIR9, is of particular morphogenetic interest since it marks the site at the cortex where the next cross-wall will insert and then AIR9 returns just as that new wall attaches. The group is studying the complex that predicts the future division plane.

Selected Publications

Buschmann H., Lloyd C. W. (2008)
Arabidopsis mutants and the network of microtubule-associated functions
Molecular Plant 1 888-898

Lloyd C., Chan J. (2008)
The parallel lives of microtubules and cellulose microfibrils.
Current Opinion in Plant Biology 11 (6) 641-6
DOI:10.1016/j.pbi.2008.10.007

Buschmann H., Chan J., Sanchez-Pulido L., Andrae-Navarro M. A., Doonan J. H., Lloyd C. W. (2006)
Microtubule-associated AIR9 recognizes the cortical division site at preprophase and cell-plate insertion
Current Biology 16 1938-1943

Lloyd C., Chan J. (2004)
Microtubules and the shape of plants to come
Nature Reviews: Molecular Cell Biology 5 13-22

Recent Publications

Chan J., Eder M., Crowell E. F., Hampson J., Calder G., Lloyd C. (2011)
Microtubules and CESA tracks at the inner epidermal wall align independently of those on the outer wall of light-grown Arabidopsis hypocotyls.
Journal of Cell Science 124 (Pt 7) 1088-94
DOI:10.1242/jcs.086702

Pesquet E., Korolev A. V., Calder G., Lloyd C. W. (2011)
Mechanisms for shaping, orienting, positioning and patterning plant secondary cell walls
Plant Signalling & Behavior 6 (6) 843-849

Buschmann H., Green P., Sambade A., Doonan J. H., Lloyd C. W. (2010)
Cytoskeletal dynamics in interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis analysed through Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation of tobacco BY-2 cells.
New Phytologist 190 258-267
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03587.x

Buschmann H., Sambade A., Pesquet E., Calder G., Lloyd C. W. (2010)
Microtubule dynamics in plant cells.
Microtubules In Vivo
Academic Press
97 (20) 373-400
DOI:10.1016/S0091-679X(10)97020-9

Chan J., Crowell E., Eder M., Calder G., Bunnewell S., Findlay K., Vernhettes S., Höfte H., Lloyd C. (2010)
The rotation of cellulose synthase trajectories is microtubule dependent and influences the texture of epidermal cell walls in Arabidopsis hypocotyls
Journal of Cell Science 123 (20) 3490-3495
DOI:10.1242/jcs.074641

Pesquet E., Korolev A. V., Calder G., Lloyd C. W. (2010)
The microtubule-associated protein AtMAP70-5 regulates secondary wall patterning in Arabidopsis wood cells
Current Biology 20 (8) 744-749
DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2010.02.057

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