Cell wall
hideA cell wall is a tough, flexible and sometimes fairly rigid layer that surrounds some types of cells. It is located outside the cell membrane and provides these cells with structural support and protection, and also acts as a filtering mechanism. A major function of the cell wall is to act as a pressure vessel, preventing over-expansion when water enters the cell. They are found in plants, bacteria, fungi, algae, and some archaea. Animals and protozoa do not have cell walls.
The materials in a cell wall vary between species, and in plants and fungi also differ between cell types and developmental stages. In plants, the strongest component of the complex cell wall is a carbohydrate called cellulose, which is a polymer of glucose. In bacteria, peptidoglycan forms the cell wall. Archaean cell walls have various compositions, and may be formed of glycoprotein S-layers, pseudopeptidoglycan, or polysaccharides. Fungi possess cell walls made of the glucosamine polymer chitin, and algae typically possess walls made of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. Unusually, diatoms have a cell wall composed of silicic acid. Often, other accessory molecules are found anchored to the cell wall.
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News tagged with plant cell walls
New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments
Jul 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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They've been dubbed "grassoline" - second generation biofuels made from inedible plant material, including fast-growing weeds, agricultural waste, sawdust, etc. - and numerous scientific studies have shown ...
Breaking the ties that bind: New hope for biomass fuels
Apr 22, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have discovered a potential chink in the armor of fibers that make the cell walls of certain inedible plant materials so tough. The insight ultimately ...
Scientists create new enzymes for biofuel production
Mar 23, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
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Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and world-leading gene-synthesis company DNA2.0 have taken an important step toward the development of a cost-efficient process to extract sugars ...
Improved test can screen fungal pests for biofuel sources
Biology /
Feb 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Those pesky fungi that wreak havoc on such important crops as corn and wheat just might be the key to low-cost biofuel production, report Cornell researchers who have improved a method to ...
Search results for plant cell walls
Clues to How Plants Form New Cell Walls Could Aid Biofuels, Nanotechnology
Feb 27, 2008 |
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When plant cells divide, they assemble molecular building blocks into new cell walls made of carbohydrate and protein, but scientists know almost nothing about how this process occurs. A team of researchers including Maura ...
Fruit Cell Wall Proteins Help Fungus Turn Tomatoes From Ripe to Rotten
Biology /
Jan 23, 2008 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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Using tomatoes as a research plant, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have discovered that two plant enzymes that occur in the plant's cell walls cooperate with each other to make ripe fruit more susceptible ...
Advance in understanding cellulose synthesis
Jun 14, 2009 |
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Cellulose is a fibrous molecule that makes up plant cell walls, gives plants shape and form and is a target of renewable, plant-based biofuels research. But how it forms, and thus how it can be modified to design energy-rich ...
Waxy plant substance key for absorption of water, nutrients
May 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- While proving a long-held theory that suberin blocks water and nutrient absorption in plants, a Purdue University scientist learned more about manipulating the substance to better feed plants.
Scientists Identify Stem-Cell Genes That Help Form Plant Organs
Biology /
Feb 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Plant stem-cells are master cells located at the tip of the stem and are part of a structure called the shoot apical meristem (SAM). Here, the stem cells—all clumped together—divide throughout ...
Plant Gene Mapping May Lead to Better Biofuel Production
Apr 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- By creating a 'family tree' of genes expressed in one form of woody plant and a less woody, herbaceous species, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory ...
Protein that triggers plant cell division
Jun 11, 2009 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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From the valves in a human heart to the quills on a porcupine to the petals on a summer lily, the living world is as varied as it is vast. For this to be possible, the cells that make up these living things must be just as ...
Shredding corn silage could produce more ethanol at less cost
Biology /
Feb 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A Purdue University researcher has found a way to get more bang for fewer bucks when it comes to processing cellulosic material to make ethanol.
Scientists demonstrate first use of nanotechnology to enter plant cells
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
May 16, 2007 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
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A team of Iowa State University plant scientists and materials chemists have successfully used nanotechnology to penetrate plant cell walls and simultaneously deliver a gene and a chemical that triggers its expression with ...
New research to help fight widespread potato disease
Biology /
Nov 07, 2007 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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Scientists have made a key discovery into the genetics of the bacteria that causes blackleg, an economically damaging disease of potatoes, that could lead to new ways to fight the disease. The researchers at the University ...
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