Professor Bo Liu, Department of Plant Biology, holds an Arabidopsis plant while Professor Jawdat Al-Bassam, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, holds a model of the augmin protein complex.

During plant development, the mechanical properties of the cell walls must be tuned to regulate the growth of the cells. Cell growth involves significant stretching of the cell walls, yet little is ...

Cells are the smallest unit of life and the building blocks for all organisms. Each component of a cell has its own function. Animal and plant cells differ and they have similarities. Nucleus, cell ...

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Plant leaves need a large surface area to capture sunlight for photosynthesis. Dr. Emanuele Scacchi and Professor Marja Timmermans from the Center for Plant Molecular Biology at the University of ...

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 ...

Pectin is a major component of plant cells walls. The extent to which pectin chains crosslink with one another determines crucial properties including cell wall strength, porosity, and the ability of ...

For the first time, high-resolution time-lapse videos of tiny bits of living plants show how they assemble their protective cell walls, researchers report March 21 in Science Advances. The image ...

A new part of an ocean plant cell has been discovered that might revolutionize farming one day. The structure can take nitrogen and convert it into the ingredient that helps all organisms grow. We're ...

Arabidopsis plant with defective augmin (right and inset) does not grow compared to a control plant (left). Some weedkillers attack the augmin system. In plants, augmin is involved both in cell ...