The secret of how fiber shapes the structure of plant cell walls has been revealed, with potentially wide-ranging applications ranging from nutrition and health to agriculture. Researchers from The ...

Using a new method to isolate and reprogram plant cells into other cell types, biologists explored how banding patterns that increase the stability of plant cell walls are created and how their ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A plant cell wall's unique ability to expand without weakening or breaking--a quality required for plant growth--is due to the movement of its cellulose skeleton, according to ...

Plant cells are surrounded by an intricately structured protective coat called the cell wall. It’s built of cellulose microfibrils intertwined with polysaccharides like hemicellulose or pectin. We ...

Professor Bo Liu, Department of Plant Biology, holds an Arabidopsis plant while Professor Jawdat Al-Bassam, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, holds a model of the augmin protein complex.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The wall of a plant cell is no longer just a biological bulwark. It is a critical component in science. To update other biologists with fresh information about plant cell walls, ...

Researchers have uncovered the mechanics of how plant cell walls balance the strength and rigidity provided by cellulose with its ability to stretch and compress. This discovery helps explain how ...

Can the bend of a banana give us insight into cancer? What does the shape of a rice grain have to do with infertility? The proteins that give plants their shape and structure are also involved in ...

A new method developed by Penn State biologists allows them to turn stripped-down plant cells into other types of cells, ...

Clothing that adapts to one's needs and senses the external habitat. A lunar lava tunnel that uses bacteria, plants and fungi to create sustainable human habitats within otherwise unlivable places.