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STABILITY AND COLCHICINE EFFECT OF WALL MICROFIBRILLAR ALIGNMENT IN THE NITELLA RHIZOID
Author(s) -
Chen James C. W.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1982.tb13406.x
Subject(s) - rhizoid , nitella , colchicine , elongation , biology , biophysics , cell wall , botany , materials science , composite material , genetics , ultimate tensile strength
The cell wall of the Nitella rhizoid was stripped to make wedges of various thicknesses. Polarizing and interference microscopes were used to examine the post‐deposition orientation of wall microfibrils. The fibrils appeared to maintain alignment after they were deposited. Since during growth the rhizoid wall elements are static in the cylindrical part or extend isotropically in the dome (Chen, 1973), these observations provide indirect evidence that the fibrillar reorientation observed in the Nitella internode is due to a passive reorientation during the predominant longitudinal cell elongation (Gertel and Green, 1977). The static microfibrils of the secondary wall of rhizoid, however, reoriented under the influence of colchicine, the alignment becoming almost random after 48 hrs. The disturbance of alignment started in the region adjacent to the plasma membrane, increasing in thickness with prolonged treatment.