title: Catalysts of plant cell wall loosening.
abstract: The growing cell wall in plants has conflicting requirements to be strong enough to withstand the high tensile forces generated by cell turgor pressure while selectively yielding to those forces to induce wall stress relaxation, leading to water uptake and polymer movements underlying cell wall expansion. In this article, I review emerging concepts of plant primary cell wall structure, the nature of wall extensibility and the action of expansins, family-9 and -12 endoglucanases, family-16 xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolase (XTH), and pectin methylesterases, and offer a critical assessment of their wall-loosening activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cosgrove
keywords: cell wall expansion; plant cell wall; wall loosening