Gravity: one of the driving forces for evolution.
Mechanical load is 10(3) larger for land-living than for water-living organisms. As a consequence, antigravitational material in form of compound materials like lignified cell walls in plants and mineralised bones in animals occurs in land-living organisms preferentially. Besides cellulose, pectic substances of plant cell walls seem to function as antigravitational material in early phases of plant evolution and development. A testable hypothesis including vesicular recycling processes into the tensegrity concept is proposed for both sensing of gravitational force and responding by production of antigravitational material at the cellular level.
Volkmann
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D
Institut für Zelluläre und Molekulare Botanik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany. unb110@uni-bonn.de
Baluska
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F
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000388:Air; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism; D017886:Durapatite / Q000378:metabolism; D006112:Gravitation; D018466:Gravity Sensing; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D010368:Pectins / Q000378:metabolism; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism; D014867:Water
D011134:Polysaccharides; D014867:Water; C007916:hemicellulose; D010368:Pectins; D008031:Lignin; D003094:Collagen; D017886:Durapatite