Treatment with 10 μM taxol or 3 mM colchicine results in the development of similar aberrant morphotypes in Vicia hajastana (vetch) suspension cultures. After 2 days exposure to either drug, cells exhibit a disruption in polarity (i.e., swelling or spherical morphology). In taxol-treated cells, microtubules are abundant and brightly stained. In the presence of colchicine, microtubules are absent. Calcofluor staining illustrates that in the presence of taxol the microfibrils appear as thick ordered bundles, while in the presence of colchicine, microfibril bundles are smaller and exhibit less detectable order. The presence of thick bundles of microfibrils is confirmed in taxol-treated cells by the analysis of birefringence patterns. Walls of colchicine-treated cells exhibit a patchy birefringence pattern in polarized light, with adjacent patches exhibiting different order. Although taxol-treated cells contain abundant microtubules, their morphology and wall deposition resemble those of cells that lack microtubules. These observations indicate that the dynamics of microtubules may be important to their proper functioning in cell wall deposition. The differences in wall morphology between taxol- and colchicine-treated cells may reflect the different mechanisms of action of these two drugs.
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Weerdenburg et al. (1988) studied this question.