High-resolution imaging of the membranous intermediates and cytoskeletal arrays involved in the assembly of a new cell wall during plant cytokinesis requires state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques. The combination of cryofixation/freeze-substitution meth ...
Computerized molecular modeling continues to increase in capability and applicability to carbohydrates. This chapter covers nomenclature and conformational aspects of carbohydrates, perhaps of greater use to carbohydrate-inexperienced computational chemists. I ...
Plant tissue cultures are an efficient system to study cell wall biosynthesis in living cells in vivo. Tissue cultures also provide cells and culture medium where enzymes and cell wall polymers can easily be separated for further studies. Tissue cultures with tracheary element different ...
This article summarizes the theory and practical aspects of measuring cell wall properties by four different extensometer techniques and how the results of these methods relate to the concept and ideal measurement of cell wall extensibility in the context of cell growth. These in vivo tech ...
The moss Physcomitrella patens has become established as a model for investigating plant gene function due to the feasibility of gene targeting. The chemical composition of the P. patens cell wall is similar to that of vascular plants and phylogenetic analyses of glycosyltransferase seq ...
Plant cell wall proteins play essential roles in many important biological processes, and yet there is still not a comprehensive catalogue of the cell wall proteome, or “secretome”. Here, we describe three procedures, including a yeast secretion trap (YST), Agrobacterium-mediated tra ...
Arabinogalactan proteins are a diverse group of plant cell wall-associated proteoglycans. While structural and molecular genetic analyses have contributed to the emerging improved understanding of the wide-range of biological processes in which AGPs are implicated; the abil ...
Undoubtedly, the function of the plant cell wall in the control of cell growth far exceeds its mechanical role. The plant’s monitoring of cell wall function and integrity comprises a central checkpoint to integrate cues for survival and division, expansion and differentiation, as well as flu ...
Structural proteins of the primary cell wall present unusual but interesting problems for structural biologists in particular and plant biologists in general. As structure is the key to function; then the biochemical isolation of these glycoproteins for further study is paramount. H ...
Gluconacetobacter xylinus synthesises cellulose in an analogous fashion to plants. Through fermentation of Ga. xylinus in media containing cell wall polysaccharides from the hemicellulose and/or pectin families, composites with cellulose can be produced. These serve as gene ...
Studies of the mobilities of polysaccharides or parts of polysaccharides in a cell-wall preparation may give clues about the molecular interactions among the polysaccharides in the cell wall and the relative locations of polysaccharides within the cell wall. A number of solid-state 13C ...
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can be used to obtain high-resolution images on a wide variety of materials. Unfortunately, plant cell wall material is typically too rough to be imaged as native tissue by AFM. Small tissue fragments can be produced through careful ball milling. These fragments can ...
Biosynthesis of pectin and hemicelluloses occurs in the Golgi apparatus and is thought to involve spatial regulations and complex formation of biosynthetic enzymes and proteins. We have demonstrated that a combination of heterologous expression of recombinant proteins tagged ...
Plant cells are delimited by a rigid cell wall that resists internal turgor pressure, but extends with a remarkable degree of control that allows the cell to grow and acquire specific shapes. Live cell fluorescence microscopy systems have allowed an amazing view into the complex and dynamic liv ...
HVPE is an excellent and often overlooked method for obtaining objective and meaningful information about cell-wall “building blocks” and their metabolic precursors. It provides not only a means of analysis of known compounds but also an insight into the charge and/or mass of any unfamiliar ...
In today’s field of plant cell wall research, insights into the structure of wall components are obtained using many different techniques, ranging from spectroscopic and microscopic to chemical and biochemical. In this chapter, we describe one method: oligosaccharide mass profiling ...
The interaction of plants with their environment is very dynamic. Studying the underlying processes is important for understanding and modeling plant response to changing environmental conditions. Photosynthesis varies largely between different plants and at different lo ...
The Leaf Extraction and Analysis Framework Graphical User Interface (LEAF GUI) software is designed for biologists who wish to analyze the structure of vessel bundles (veins) in leaves. The software enables users to extract descriptive statistics on the dimensions and positions of leaf ...
Plant organ phenotyping by noninvasive video imaging techniques provides a powerful tool to assess physiological traits, circadian and diurnal rhythms, and biomass production. In particular, growth of individual plant organs is known to exhibit a high plasticity and occurs as a result ...
Advances in automated plant handling and image acquisition now make it possible to use digital imaging for the high-throughput phenotyping of plants. Various traits can be extracted from individual images. However, the potential of this technology lies in the acquisition of time series. ...