Fig. 4

A proposed model for how mechanical intervention biases the microtubule network and leads to its global reorientation. (A) Proposed model for how potential stress sensors act on a pre-structured microtubule-cell wall system in the case of low stress (left panel) and high stress (right panel). The schematic is created with BioRender. (B) When MTs are not influenced by mechanical stress, the network can form aligned MT bundles in random directions. (C) As the network is subject to anisotropic stress pattern, MTs can align and orient in the direction parallel to the principal stress, to various extents based on which parameter is regulated by stress. (D) Time-dependent transition of the principal direction of network stress can lead to dynamic remodeling and MTs thus globally reorient the MTs. (E) With a biological cell-based stress gradient, MTs can form physiologically relevant patterns with transverse bands near the cell apex during anisotropic diffuse growth, reminiscent of the alignment of MTs parallel to tip-biased, shape-derived, material-property-based anisotropic cell wall stress