Tag: Cell Walls

Xylem vessels have a distinct secondary cell wall (SCW) formation, where the metaxylem stage contains a characteristic pit pattern. The hemicellulose xylan is an important component of the SCW, functioning as a crosslinking polymer that coats cellulose microfibrils and interacts with other SCW components.…

The studies on the apoplastic interactions of plants and fungi often focus on the fungal cell-wall, but recent studies indicate various plant colonizing fungi also have an exopolysaccharide (EPS) layer outside their cell wall. Chandrasekar et al. observed that the composition of this fungal EPS is distinct…

In many plants, epidermal pavement cells lock together through interdigitating lobes, much like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.  These cells start out as regular squarish cells with straight walls, which then bow out and curve. Here, Belteton et al. investigate how lobes form in cotyledon pavement cells.…

Primary plant cell walls are made up of three types of polysaccharides: cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin, the orientations and interactions of which provide the cell wall with its properties. Here, Zhang et al. examined the outer wall of onion epidermal cells through atomic-force microscopy, stress-strain…

Affiliation: University of Melbourne ORCiD: 0000-0001-5092-6168 email: marc.somssich@unimelb.edu.au Mangrove trees live and thrive in intertidal zones, where they are regularly inundated with salt water. To survive such harsh environmental conditions, they have evolved several features to improve…

Madeleine Seale Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB, United Kingdom Maddy.seale@plants.ox.ac.uk ORCID: 0000-0002-8924-3943   In a world surrounded by a vast expanse of gaseous air, water is constantly evaporating from aqueous sources…

The cell walls of plants are intricate structures. Their complexity is due to multiple biochemical components and interactions, but while many of the components have been identified, their interactions have yet to be fully elucidated. A major component of the cell wall is cellulose, of which multiple…

Lignin is a major functional component of plant secondary cell walls and the second most abundant biological polymer on Earth after cellulose. Understanding the biosynthesis of lignin has huge practical implications because lignin is a major by-product of processes that use cellulosic biomass for industrial…