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First published online March 2, 2004

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Plumbing for plants

Water pipes, formed by the walls of dead cells, ensure the efficient transport of water and solutes in the xylem of vascular plants. In elongating plant organs such as the hypocotyl, which lifts the growing tip of the germinating seedling out of the soil, the passive elongation of dead and empty protoxylem elements by surrounding live tissue maintains a functional water-conducting system. Now, Ulrich Ryser and co-workers use confocal laser scanning microscopy to investigate a new structural element in the cell wall of protoxylem cells in hypocotyls (see p. 1179). This structural element, which contains glycine-rich proteins (GRPs), is initially deposited in the corners of cells along the longitudinal axis of the protoxylem, where it is associated with the pectin polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan I. The authors show that the polysaccharide-rich wall of living and elongating protoxylem is gradually replaced by GRP-containing cell wall material, which develops into a complicated 3D network that seems to stabilize the protoxylem. They also report that GPR-related sequences are found in many seed plants, leading them to suggest that GRP-rich walls originated early in seed plant evolution.

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Related articles in JCS:

A new structural element containing glycine-rich proteins and rhamnogalacturonan I in the protoxylem of seed plants

Ulrich Ryser, Martine Schorderet, Romain Guyot, and Beat Keller
JCS 2004 117: 1179-1190. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?