Short communication Forward and reverse genetics in Arabidopsis: isolation of cytoskeletal mutants

) mu-tants were originally isolated from visual screens formutations affecting seedling organisation (Mayer et al.,1991; Traas et al., 1995). These mutations drasticallychange the shape of the seedling, resulting in dwarf andcompressed plantlets (Fig. 1). Mutant cells are markedlyaltered in their size, shape and arrangement, in relationto defects in cell elongation and random orientation ofdivision planes. Interestingly, mutant cells are unable toform the preprophase band, and the cortical micro-tubules are randomly arranged in interphase mutantcells, instead of forming regular arrays normally associ-ated with cell elongation. Mitotic microtubule arraysseem unaffected by the mutation.The