Kim L Johnson La Trobe Institute for Agriculture & Food, Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia Flowers are mostly associated with pleasant smells; the sweet fragrance of a rose, the exotic scent of jasmine, the fresh smell of spring blossom. Some flowers, however, produce quite the opposite, […]
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has been likened to the manufacturing and packaging department of a factory, an action packed production area that distributes things to the rest of the cell. The ER does this by forming complex networks of tubules and cisternae that connect to other membranous organelles. In certain plant species, specialised ER-derived compartments […]
When did you last stop to think about the amazing chemical properties of water? Water is one of the few substances that have a larger volume as a solid than a liquid due to the hexagonal arrangement of molecules that make up ice crystals. For plants, ice crystals forming in the extracellular space of cells […]
Whereas fluorescent tagging of proteins has dramatically advanced the study of protein function in cell biology, similar approaches with walls have been difficult due to the few methods available to visualize polysaccharides and monitor their dynamic modifications. What has become increasingly clear in recent years is how the physical properties of walls can direct not […]