When Plants 'Think' Alike

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Both lignin and cellulose are found in the rigid cell walls of the xylem cells (those that conduct water) in the primitive plant Selaginella. Credit: Zina Deretsky National Science Foundation Selaginella cross section SEM by Jing-Ke Weng Clint Chappl ...
Both lignin and cellulose are found in the rigid cell walls of the xylem cells (those that conduct water) in the primitive plant, Selaginella. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation; Selaginella cross section SEM by Jing-Ke Weng, Clint Chapple, Purdue University; Lignin structure from Wout Bergjan, John Ralph, Marie Baucher (Annual Review of Plant Biology, Vol. 54:519-546, June 2003); Cellulose structure from http://www.chusa.jussieu.fr/disc/bio_cell/

Biologists have discovered that a fundamental building block in the cells of flowering plants evolved independently, yet almost identically, on a separate branch of the evolutionary tree--in an ancient plant group called lycophytes that originated at least 420 million years ago.


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