Comparative in situ analysis reveals the dynamic nature of sclerenchyma cell walls of the fern Asplenium rutifolium.

Background And Aims: A key structural adaptation of vascular plants was the evolution of specialized vascular and mechanical tissues, innovations likely to have generated novel cell wall architectures. While collenchyma is a strengthening tissue typically found in growing organs of angiosperms, a similar tissue occurs in the petiole of the fern Asplenium rutifolium.

Methods: The in situ cell wall (ultra)structure and composition of this tissue was investigated and characterized mechanically as well as structurally through nano-indentation and wide-angle X-ray diffraction, respectively.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of (sw.) C. Y. Yang in Lycopodiaceae.

(Sw.) C. Y.

Antibody-based screening of cell wall matrix glycans in ferns reveals taxon, tissue and cell-type specific distribution patterns.

Background: While it is kno3wn that complex tissues with specialized functions emerged during land plant evolution, it is not clear how cell wall polymers and their structural variants are associated with specific tissues or cell types. Moreover, due to the economic importance of many flowering plants, ferns have been largely neglected in cell wall comparative studies.

Results: To explore fern cell wall diversity sets of monoclonal antibodies directed to matrix glycans of angiosperm cell walls have been used in glycan microarray and in situ analyses with 76 fern species and four species of lycophytes.

Comparative glycan profiling of Ceratopteris richardii 'C-Fern' gametophytes and sporophytes links cell-wall composition to functional specialization.

Background And Aims: Innovations in vegetative and reproductive characters were key factors in the evolutionary history of land plants and most of these transformations, including dramatic changes in life cycle structure and strategy, necessarily involved cell-wall modifications. To provide more insight into the role of cell walls in effecting changes in plant structure and function, and in particular their role in the generation of vascularization, an antibody-based approach was implemented to compare the presence and distribution of cell-wall glycan epitopes between (free-living) gametophytes and sporophytes of Ceratopteris richardii 'C-Fern', a widely used model system for ferns.

Methods: Microarrays of sequential diamino-cyclohexane-tetraacetic acid (CDTA) and NaOH extractions of gametophytes, spores and different organs of 'C-Fern' sporophytes were probed with glycan-directed monoclonal antibodies.