AUTHOR=Höfte Herman , Peaucelle Alexis , Braybrook Siobhan 

TITLE=Cell wall mechanics and growth control in plants: the role of pectins revisited

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2012.00121

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2012.00121

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>How is the extensibility of growing plant cell walls regulated? In the past, most studies have focused on the role of the cellulose/xyloglucan network and the enigmatic wall-loosening agents expansins. Here we review first how in the closest relatives of the land plants, the Charophycean algae, cell wall synthesis is coupled to cell wall extensibility by a chemical Ca<sup>2+</sup>-exchange mechanism between Ca<sup>2+</sup>–pectate complexes. We next discuss evidence for the existence in terrestrial plants of a similar “primitive” Ca<sup>2+</sup>–pectate-based growth control mechanism in parallel to the more recent, land plant-specific, expansin-dependent process.</p>