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Plants
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New Perspectives on the Plant Cell Wall
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New Perspectives on the Plant Cell Wall

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Cell Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 3607

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David Stuart Thompson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK
Interests: plant cell walls; plant biomechanics; plant water relations; food security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cell walls are crucial for a wide range of biological processes in plants, including the regulation of growth and development, creating resilient and adaptable structures, stomatal dynamics, and pathogen and pest resistance to name just a few. They are amongst the first materials used by humans and are an important source of biopolymers and biofuels in the twenty-first century.

They are complex mechanical systems in which their physical behavior is controlled by wall chemistry and biochemistry to fulfill the biomechanical, physiological, and ecological requirements of the organism.

A thorough understanding of the intersections between the scientific fields of biology, chemistry, and physics in plant cell walls will contribute to our knowledge of the biological processes dependent on the wall, and help us to improve and expand the applications of cell-wall-based biomaterials.

This Special Issue seeks to explore how plant-cell-wall chemistry, composition, and biochemistry influence cell wall properties, how living organisms control cell wall behavior, and how we might use this information in relation to biomaterial development.

Dr. David Stuart Thompson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plant cell wall
  • biomechanics
  • biomaterials

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 24723 KiB  
Article
Sucrose and Mannans Affect Arabidopsis Shoot Gravitropism at the Cell Wall Level
by Gregory Pozhvanov and Dmitry Suslov
Plants 2024, 13(2), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13020209 - 11 Jan 2024
Viewed by 765
Abstract
Gravitropism is the plant organ bending in response to gravity. Gravitropism, phototropism and sufficient mechanical strength define the optimal position of young shoots for photosynthesis. Etiolated wild-type Arabidopsis seedlings grown horizontally in the presence of sucrose had a lot more upright hypocotyls than [...] Read more.
Gravitropism is the plant organ bending in response to gravity. Gravitropism, phototropism and sufficient mechanical strength define the optimal position of young shoots for photosynthesis. Etiolated wild-type Arabidopsis seedlings grown horizontally in the presence of sucrose had a lot more upright hypocotyls than seedlings grown without sucrose. We studied the mechanism of this effect at the level of cell wall biomechanics and biochemistry. Sucrose strengthened the bases of hypocotyls and decreased the content of mannans in their cell walls. As sucrose is known to increase the gravitropic bending of hypocotyls, and mannans have recently been shown to interfere with this process, we examined if the effect of sucrose on shoot gravitropism could be partially mediated by mannans. We compared cell wall biomechanics and metabolomics of hypocotyls at the early steps of gravitropic bending in Col-0 plants grown with sucrose and mannan-deficient mutant seedlings. Sucrose and mannans affected gravitropic bending via different mechanisms. Sucrose exerted its effect through cell wall-loosening proteins, while mannans changed the walls’ viscoelasticity. Our data highlight the complexity of shoot gravitropism control at the cell wall level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on the Plant Cell Wall)
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Review

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21 pages, 5756 KiB  
Review
Arabinogalactan-Proteins as Boron-Acting Enzymes, Cross-Linking the Rhamnogalacturonan-II Domains of Pectin
by Rifat Ara Begum and Stephen C. Fry
Plants 2023, 12(23), 3921; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12233921 - 21 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 869
Abstract
Most pectic rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II) domains in plant cell walls are borate-bridged dimers. However, the sub-cellular locations, pH dependence, reversibility and biocatalyst involvement in borate bridging remain uncertain. Experiments discussed here explored these questions, utilising suspension-cultured plant cells. In-vivo pulse radiolabelling showed that most [...] Read more.
Most pectic rhamnogalacturonan-II (RG-II) domains in plant cell walls are borate-bridged dimers. However, the sub-cellular locations, pH dependence, reversibility and biocatalyst involvement in borate bridging remain uncertain. Experiments discussed here explored these questions, utilising suspension-cultured plant cells. In-vivo pulse radiolabelling showed that most RG-II domains dimerise extremely quickly (<4 min after biosynthesis, thus while still intraprotoplasmic). This tallies with the finding that boron withdrawal causes cell wall weakening within 10–20 min, and supports a previously proposed biological role for boron/RG-II complexes specifically at the wall/membrane interface. We also discuss RG-II monomer ↔ dimer interconversion as monitored in vitro using gel electrophoresis and a novel thin-layer chromatography method to resolve monomers and dimers. Physiologically relevant acidity did not monomerise dimers, thus boron bridge breaking cannot be a wall-loosening mechanism in ‘acid growth’; nevertheless, recently discovered RG-II trimers and tetramers are unstable and may thus underpin reversible wall loosening. Dimerising monomers in vitro by B(OH)3 required the simultaneous presence of RG-II-binding ‘chaperones’: co-ordinately binding metals and/or ionically binding cationic peptides. Natural chaperones of the latter type include highly basic arabinogalactan protein fragments, e.g., KHKRKHKHKRHHH, which catalyse a reaction [2 RG-II + B(OH)3 → RG-II–B–RG-II], suggesting that plants can ‘enzymically’ metabolise boron. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on the Plant Cell Wall)
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11 pages, 762 KiB  
Review
The Growth Oscillator and Plant Stomata: An Open and Shut Case
by Derek T. A. Lamport
Plants 2023, 12(13), 2531; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12132531 - 03 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1637
Abstract
Since Darwin’s “Power of Movement in Plants” the precise mechanism of oscillatory plant growth remains elusive. Hence the search continues for the hypothetical growth oscillator that regulates a huge range of growth phenomena ranging from circumnutation to pollen tube tip growth and stomatal [...] Read more.
Since Darwin’s “Power of Movement in Plants” the precise mechanism of oscillatory plant growth remains elusive. Hence the search continues for the hypothetical growth oscillator that regulates a huge range of growth phenomena ranging from circumnutation to pollen tube tip growth and stomatal movements. Oscillators are essentially simple devices with few components. A universal growth oscillator with only four major components became apparent recently with the discovery of a missing component, notably arabinogalactan glycoproteins (AGPs) that store dynamic Ca2+ at the cell surface. Demonstrably, auxin-activated proton pumps, AGPs, Ca2+ channels, and auxin efflux “PIN” proteins, embedded in the plasma membrane, combine to generate cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations that ultimately regulate oscillatory growth: Hechtian adhesion of the plasma membrane to the cell wall and auxin-activated proton pumps trigger the release of dynamic Ca2+ stored in periplasmic AGP monolayers. These four major components represent a molecular PINball machine a strong visual metaphor that also recognises auxin efflux “PIN” proteins as an essential component. Proton “pinballs” dissociate Ca2+ ions bound by paired glucuronic acid residues of AGP glycomodules, hence reassessing the role of proton pumps. It shifts the prevalent paradigm away from the recalcitrant “acid growth” theory that proposes direct action on cell wall properties, with an alternative explanation that connects proton pumps to Ca2+ signalling with dynamic Ca2+ storage by AGPs, auxin transport by auxin-efflux PIN proteins and Ca2+ channels. The extensive Ca2+ signalling literature of plants ignores arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs). Such scepticism leads us to reconsider the validity of the universal growth oscillator proposed here with some exceptions that involve marine plants and perhaps the most complex stress test, stomatal regulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on the Plant Cell Wall)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Comparative cell wall profiling of the resurrection plants Craterostigma plantagineum and Lindernia brevidens with their desiccation sensitive relative Lindernia subracemosa

Vegetative desiccation tolerance has evolved within the genus Craterostigma and Lindernia. A centre of endemism and diversification for these plants appears to occur in ancient tropical montane rainforests of east Africa in Kenya and Tanzania. Lindernia subracemosa, a desiccation-sensitive relative of C. plantagineum, occurs in these rainforests and experiences adequate rainfall so does not seem to require desiccation tolerance. However, sharing this inselberg habitat, another species Lindernia brevidens does retain vegetative desiccation tolerance and is also related to the resurrection plant C. plantagineum also found in South Africa. Leaf material was collected from all three species at different stages of hydration fully hydrated, half-dry ca. 50% relative water content and fully desiccated. Cell wall saccharification and monosaccharide datasets were collected from all three species.  Comprehensive microarray polymer profiling (CoMPP) using ca. 27 plant cell wall specific antibody and carbohydrate binding module probes. Datasets were analysed using statistical methods. Global datasets do not show significant differences between species suggesting cell wall modifications in response to vegetative desiccation tolerance involves subtle cell wall remodelling not detectable using the analytical tools used and that the plants and their walls are constitutively protected against desiccation.

Keywords: Craterostigma, Lindernea, evolution, glycan microarrays, monosaccharides, cell walls

 

 

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