Loosening of plant cell walls by expansins

Daniel J. Cosgrove ()
Additional contact information
Daniel J. Cosgrove: 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Nature, 2000, vol. 407, issue 6802, 321-326

Abstract: Abstract Plant cell walls are the starting materials for many commercial products, from lumber, paper and textiles to thickeners, films and explosives. The cell wall is secreted by each cell in the plant body, forming a thin fibreglass-like network with remarkable strength and flexibility. During growth, plant cells secrete a protein called expansin, which unlocks the network of wall polysaccharides, permitting turgor-driven cell enlargement. Germinating grass pollen also secretes an unusual expansin that loosens maternal cell walls to aid penetration of the stigma by the pollen tube. Expansin's action has puzzling implications for plant cell-wall structure. The recent explosion of gene sequences and expression data has given new hints of additional biological functions for expansins.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35030000 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:407:y:2000:i:6802:d:10.1038_35030000

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35030000

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().