Coiled-Coil- And Intermediate Filament-Proteins In The Plant Nucleoskeleton.

Plant cells have a nucleoskeleton formed by a peripheral lamina and an internal network of branched knobbed 15–25 nm filaments, with a periodic organization similar to that of intermediate filaments. We review here the features of NuMA and lamins, two main intermediate filament- type proteins of the vertebrate nucleoskeleton, and also some plant nucleoskeleton proteins sharing antigenic determinants with those of vertebrates. In addition, plants seem to have evolved unique intermediate filament-like nucleoskeleton proteins that are functional homologues of the vertebrate ones, such as NIFs, NMCP1, MFP1 and NMP1. The present challenge is to determine the specific subsets of proteins forming the lamina and the nucleoskeleton in plant systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]