Physiology And Biochemistry Of Plant Cell Walls (topics In Plant Physiology)

For the plant cell, the cell wall is a frontier zone, where the cell encounters the challenge of the outside world. We have sought in this book to present a series of portraits of the plant cell wall as it participates in various different aspects of the life of the plant cell. Hardly any event in the cell's life occurs without involving the wall in some way, and as a result the book covers almost every aspect of plant cell biology, albeit from a special point of view. In presenting the various portraits, we have tried to show how the biochemistry, physiology and fine structure combine to give a full picture. In many cases, however, cell-wall research has not progressed far enough to give a complete picture, and numerous gaps remain. We are most grateful to Mike Black and John Chapman for inviting us to write this book and for their advice; to Clem Earle for his encouragement and help; to Dr P.M. Dey for his helpful comments; to the many contributors of photographs and diagrams; to Ros Brett, for taking more than her share of the parenting while writing was in progress; and, most especially, to Su Waldron for doing all the work on the word processor Front Matter....Pages i-xiv The role of the cell wall in the life of the plant....Pages 1-3 Cell wall structure and the skeletal functions of the wall....Pages 4-57 Cell-wall formation....Pages 58-88 The cell wall and control of cell growth....Pages 89-113 The cell wall and intercellular transport....Pages 114-136 The cell wall and interactions with other organisms....Pages 137-154 The cell wall and reproduction....Pages 155-167 Cell-wall degradation....Pages 168-179 Outstanding problems for future research....Pages 180-181 Back Matter....Pages 182-194 This is a research-level botany textbook on structure and processes of plant cell walls and how these contribute towards the life of a plant. The authors present a series of portraits of the plant cell wall as it participates in various different aspect of the life of the plant cell. C. Brett, K. Waldron. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 187) And Index.