Call for Papers: Understanding Plant Cortical Microtubules by Integrating Quantitative Methods

Plant cortical microtubules form a nexus of dynamic proteins that integrate various cues – mechanical, developmental, environmental – and determine the future mechanical properties of plant cells and tissues through guiding the deposition of cell wall materials (cellulose microfibrils). Although the study of plant cortical microtubules was already highly quantitative from the start, computational models provided the grounds for well parameterized models. A tradition of over two decades of computational and mathematical models tightly coupled to experiments has demonstrated how the integration of different quantitative methods turns numbers into mechanistic insight.

In this special issue, we showcase recent advances, we reflect on the history of the field and we identify future challenges. The issue is related, but not restricted, to two workshops on modelling plant cortical microtubules, uniting modellers and experimentalists, organized in 2025 and 2026.

We invite reviews, original research, insights, and other fitting formats. While the special issue as a whole showcases the power of integrating models and experiments, individual contributions may also focus on models or experiments alone, for example reviewing a topic that has been addressed predominantly by experiments so far, and poses interesting mechanistic questions.

Deadline for submission: 30 September 2026

Editors:

Eva Deinum, Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands

Tim Tian, University of British Columbia, Canada 

Eric Cytrynbaum, University of British Columbia, Canada 

Tamsin Spelman, Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK 

René Schneider, University of Potsdam, Germany