The new view of the primary cell wall

Abstract

Abstract The plant cell wall is essential to almost every aspect of plant life. The cell wall is a dynamic and highly ordered complex of polysaccharides, structural proteins and phenolics. The introduction of new techniques in the study of cell‐wall architecture, namely the availability of antibodies to cell wall components, new methods in electron microscopy, application of physico‐chemical techniques like FTIR and NMR as well as refined biochemical analyses have substantially changed our conception of the cell wall. The extracellular matrix is no longer understood as a static, mainly covalently cross‐linked macromolecular structure but as a flexible, developmentally regulated network that is largely based on non‐covalent interactions. Three principally independent but interacting networks that form local microdomains can be distinguished: The cellulose‐microfibril ‐ xyloglucan network, the network of pectins and the network of structural cell wall proteins. This review summarizes the current ideas about the architecture and biochemical composition of primary cell walls.