News tagged with plant cell walls
Rising CO2 is causing plants to release less water to the atmosphere, researchers say
As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 03, 2011 |
3.4 / 5 (14) |
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Scientists create new enzymes for biofuel production
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and world-leading gene-synthesis company DNA2.0 have taken an important step toward the development of a cost-efficient process to extract sugars ...
Mar 23, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
3
Billion-year revision of plant evolution timeline may stem from discovery of lignin in seaweed
Land plants' ability to sprout upward through the air, unsupported except by their own woody tissues, has long been considered one of the characteristics separating them from aquatic plants, which rely on water to support ...
Biology /
Jan 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (8) |
0
Which plants will survive droughts, climate change?
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research by UCLA life scientists could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change.
Apr 06, 2012 |
4 / 5 (9) |
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Breaking the ties that bind: New hope for biomass fuels
(PhysOrg.com) -- Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have discovered a potential chink in the armor of fibers that make the cell walls of certain inedible plant materials so tough. The insight ultimately ...
Apr 22, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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Plants that move: How New Zealand species disperses seeds in high alpine, wet environment
High in an alpine meadow, Gesine Pufal, from the University of Wellington, New Zealand, crouched low to the ground and splashed some water from her water bottle on a low green plant cushion, then sat back waiting to see if ...
Sep 30, 2010 |
5 / 5 (6) |
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Breaking biomass better
One of the challenges in making cellulosic biofuels commercially viable is to cost-effectively deconstruct plant material to liberate fermentable energy-rich sugars. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is ...
Jul 12, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
0
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New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments
They've been dubbed "grassoline" - second generation biofuels made from inedible plant material, including fast-growing weeds, agricultural waste, sawdust, etc. - and numerous scientific studies have shown ...
Jul 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
3
A corny turn for biofuels from switchgrass
Many experts believe that advanced biofuels made from cellulosic biomass are the most promising alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels for a renewable, clean, green, domestic source of transportation ...
Nov 18, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
4
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CSI at the service of cellulose synthesis
(PhysOrg.com) -- Grains, vegetables and fruit taste delicious and are important sources of energy. However, humans cannot digest the main component of plants - the cellulose in the cell wall. Even in ruminants, ...
Jul 20, 2010 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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Study settles 125-year debate on how nitrogen-fixing bacteria breaches cell walls of legumes
A 125-year debate on how nitrogen-fixing bacteria are able to breach the cell walls of legumes has been settled. A paper to be published on Monday by John Innes Centre scientists reports that plants themselves allow bacteria ...
Dec 19, 2011 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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Cracking cellulose: a step into the biofuels future
Scientists from the University of York have played a pivotal role in a discovery which could finally unlock the full potential of waste plant matter to replace oil as a fuel source.
Aug 31, 2011 |
3.5 / 5 (4) |
7
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Chemists study mutated plants that may be better for biofuels
Genetic mutations to cellulose in plants could improve the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels, according to a research team that included two Iowa State University chemists.
Feb 28, 2012 |
3 / 5 (4) |
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Popping the Cork on Biofuel Agriculture
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a novel enzyme responsible for the formation of suberin -- the woody, waxy, cell-wall substance ...
Oct 19, 2009 |
2.8 / 5 (4) |
3
NREL Breaks Down Walls for Biofuels
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ethanol producers are racing to come up with ways to make ethanol from cellulosic biomass that are cheaper and easier to ...
Nov 30, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
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Cell wall
A cell wall is a tough, flexible and sometimes fairly rigid layer that surrounds some types of cells. It is located outside the cell membrane and provides these cells with structural support and protection, and also acts as a filtering mechanism. A major function of the cell wall is to act as a pressure vessel, preventing over-expansion when water enters the cell. They are found in plants, bacteria, fungi, algae, and some archaea. Animals and protozoa do not have cell walls.
The materials in a cell wall vary between species, and in plants and fungi also differ between cell types and developmental stages. In plants, the strongest component of the complex cell wall is a carbohydrate called cellulose, which is a polymer of glucose. In bacteria, peptidoglycan forms the cell wall. Archaean cell walls have various compositions, and may be formed of glycoprotein S-layers, pseudopeptidoglycan, or polysaccharides. Fungi possess cell walls made of the glucosamine polymer chitin, and algae typically possess walls made of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. Unusually, diatoms have a cell wall composed of silicic acid. Often, other accessory molecules are found anchored to the cell wall.
For more information about Cell wall, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
