[Tien-Shin Yu] Lighting up the doors

Many plant mRNAs can move cell-to-cell or long-distance to execute a non-cell-autonomous function. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying the intracellular sorting of these mRNAs. A recent publication from Dr. Tien-Shin Yu’s lab provided evidences to show that mobile mRNAs are selectively targeted to plasmodesmata (PD) for cell-to-cell movement. They exploited a fluorescence-based mRNA labeling system to visualize the intracellular trafficking of mobile mRNAs in living plant cells. The ex vivo RNA imaging revealed that mobile but not non-mobile mRNAs are selectively targeted to PD, which suggests that PD targeting of mRNA is a selective step to determine mRNA cell-to-cell movement.    (Luo et al., Plant Physiol., 2018).