Cell walls are a crucial structure of plant life, protecting cells from damage, giving plants shape, and containing ...

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 ...

The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without ...

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 ...

Artistic rendering of cellulose biosynthesis with zoomed in view. Individual cellulose chains (dark brown) are synthesized by plasma membrane-bound (purple) cellulose synthase enzyme complexes (cream) ...

Scientists have created a new atlas of plant cells during immune response, in turn discovering a new rare cell state, called Primary IMmunE Responder (PRIMER), that acts as an immune response hub to ...

Before seedlings can photosynthesize, they depend on fatty acids—and on peroxisomes to process them. Researchers discovered that the protein PEX11 not only helps these structures divide but also ...

Signals from the plant cell wall help to orchestrate growth, reproduction and immune function. Can harnessing this molecular cross talk help in creating better crops? When Robert Hooke gazed through ...

Water scarcity is projected to intensify across many major agricultural regions in the coming decades. According to the World Resources Institute, by 2040 more than one third of global cropland is ...

A newly discovered protein controls plant cell growth, helping seedlings develop and survive early growth stages.