Forces on and in the cell walls of living plants

Abstract

Environmental influences and differential growth subject plants to mechanical forces. Forces on the whole plant resolve into tensile forces on its primary cell walls and both tensile and compression forces on the secondary cell-wall layers of woody tissues. Forces on cell walls are further resolved into forces on cellulose microfibrils and on the non-cellulosic polymers between them. Many external forces on plants oscillate, with time constants that vary from seconds to milliseconds. Sound waves are a high-frequency example. Forces on the cell wall lead to responses that direct the oriented deposition of cellulose microfibrils and the patterned expansion of the cell wall, leading to complex cell and tissue morphology. Recent experiments have established many of the details of which cell-wall polymers associate with one another in both primary and secondary cell walls, but questions remain about which of the interconnections are load-bearing, especially in primary cell walls. Direct cellulose-cellulose interactions appear to have a more important mechanical role than was previously thought, and some of the non-cellulosic polymers may have a role in keeping microfibrils apart rather than cross-linking them as formerly envisaged.