Cell wall structural changes lead to separation and shedding of biofouled epidermal cell wall layers by the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum.

Marine plants control the accumulation of biofouling organisms (epibionts) on their surfaces by various chemical and physical means. Ascophyllum nodosum is a perennial multicellular brown alga known to shed patches of epidermal material, thus removing epibionts and exposing unfouled surfaces to another cycle of colonization. While surface shedding is documented in multiple marine macroalgae, the cell and developmental biology of the phenomenon is almost unexplored.

The anisotropy1 D604N mutation in the Arabidopsis cellulose synthase1 catalytic domain reduces cell wall crystallinity and the velocity of cellulose synthase complexes.

Multiple cellulose synthase (CesA) subunits assemble into plasma membrane complexes responsible for cellulose production. In the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) model system, we identified a novel D604N missense mutation, designated anisotropy1 (any1), in the essential primary cell wall CesA1. Most previously identified CesA1 mutants show severe constitutive or conditional phenotypes such as embryo lethality or arrest of cellulose production but any1 plants are viable and produce seeds, thus permitting the study of CesA1 function.

Root hair-specific disruption of cellulose and xyloglucan in AtCSLD3 mutants, and factors affecting the post-rupture resumption of mutant root hair growth.

The glycosyl transferase encoded by the cellulose synthase-like gene CSLD3/KJK/RHD7 (At3g03050) is required for cell wall integrity during root hair formation in Arabidopsis thaliana but it remains unclear whether it contributes to the synthesis of cellulose or hemicellulose. We identified two new alleles, root hair-defective (rhd) 7-1 and rhd7-4, which affect the C-terminal end of the encoded protein. Like root hairs in the previously characterized kjk-2 putative null mutant, rhd7-1 and rhd7-4 hairs rupture before tip growth but, depending on the growth medium and temperature, hairs are able to survive rupture and initiate tip growth, indicating that these alleles retain some function.

Remodeling the cytoskeleton for growth and form: an overview with some new views.

The cytoskeleton coordinates all aspects of growth in plant cells, including exocytosis of membrane and wall components during cell expansion. This review seeks to integrate current information about cytoskeletal components in plants and the role they play in generating cell form. Advances in genome analysis have fundamentally changed the nature of research strategies and generated an explosion of new information on the cytoskeleton-associated proteins, their regulation, and their role in signaling to the cytoskeleton.