Plant cells are surrounded by an intricately structured protective coat called the cell wall. It’s built of cellulose microfibrils intertwined with polysaccharides like hemicellulose or pectin. We ...

A plant cell wall is arranged in layers and contains cellulose microfibrils, hemicellulose, pectin, lignin, and soluble protein. These components are organized into three major layers: the primary ...

From plant stems to bacterial shells, cell walls are far more than rigid barriers—they’re living, adapting structures.

Plant cell wall growth is typically described as a simple process, but researchers using a microscope that can resolve images on the nanoscale level have observed something more complex. A close-up ...

Imagine if our bodies could grow new organs throughout our entire lives. Plants do this constantly, thanks to tiny, powerful reservoirs of stem cells. But how do these cells know when to divide, and ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A plant cell wall's unique ability to expand without weakening or breaking--a quality required for plant growth--is due to the movement of its cellulose skeleton, according to ...

How cells sense their physical state and compensate for cell wall damage is poorly understood. But a new analysis of plants exposed to salt stress offers the first experimental evidence and molecular ...

Banding patterns of cellulose increase the stability of plant cell walls, much like the corrugated patterns in cardboard. Penn State biologists developed a method to isolate plant cells and observe ...

Imagine if our bodies could grow new organs throughout our entire lives. Plants do this constantly, thanks to the tiny, powerful reservoirs of stem cells. But how do these cells know when to divide, ...