Plant Cell Wall

Introduction of Cell Wall:

• thickness ranging from 0.1 micrometre to
several micrometres.
• a non-living component located outside
the cell membrane and is generally not
consider to be part of protoplasm, though
it is a secretory product of the cell.
• determines the cell shape and provides
protection and support to the plant cell.
 Structures of the cell wall
• The main structural components of cell walls are
bundles of cellulose molecules known as
microfibrils.
• Each microfibril bundle consists of aproximately
2000 extremely long cellulose molecules.
• Each individual cellulose molecule is composed of
about 3000 glucose residues condensed
together.
• The cellulose microfibrils are cemented and held
together by a matrix of pectin and hemicellulose.
• The spaces between the fibrils are not entirely
filled with matrix which making the cell wall
permeable.
• The wall does not determine which materials
can enter the cell and which cannot. The
function is reserved for the plasma membrane
located below the cell wall.
• The mature plant cell wall has made up of
many layers. The first portion of the cell wall is
the primary wall(formed as long as the cell
continues to grow).
• The fibrils that form the primary wall run in all
directions and form a rather loose network which
makes the primary wall elastic and allows
stretching during cell grow.
• The middle lamella that binds the walls of two
cells together is a sticky, jellylike layer of pectin,
generally present in the form of calcium and
magnesium pectates.
• When a fruit ripens, pectin deserves and the cell
become less tightly bound to one another. It is
this loosely arranged cells that make a ripening
fruit become softer.
• The cell of soft tissues of plants have only
primary walls and intercellular middle lamellae.
• After growth stops, cells eventually form harder,
more woody portions of the plant by depositing
further layers of cellulose fibrils on the primary
cell wall forming the secondary wall.
• Secondary wall is deposited by the protoplasm,
located outside the plasma membrane but on the
outside of the primary wall formed earlier.
Essentially, the secondary cell wall is inserted
between the plasma membrane and primary
wall.
• The secondary cell wall is much thicker than
the primary cell wall and is composed by
lamellae.
• The cellulose microfibrils in each lamella lie
parallel to each other, tightly packed and are
generally oriented at angles of 60-90 degrees
to the fibrils of the adjacent of lamellae. This
arrangement gives added strength to the cell
wall.
• Secondary cell walls contain lignin, which
make them even stiffer and impermeable to
water.
• When the secondary wall is completed, many
cells die leaving the hard tube formed by the
walls to function as a mechanical and internal
supports.
• Plant cell walls do not form completely and
uninterrupted boundaries around the cells. There
are often tiny holes in the wall through which
cytoplasmic connections between adjacent cells
may run. These connections are called
plasmodesmata.
• Plasmodesmata is a narrow channels as
intercellular cytoplasmic bridge to facilitate
communication and transport of materials
between plant cells.
• The wall is not thickened further, and
depressions or thin areas known as pits are
formed in the walls. Pits normally pair up
between adjacent cells
• Plasmodesmata permit direct cell-cell
communication through the cell wall.