Our latest paper on plant responses to cell wall signaling: “A G protein-coupled receptor-like module regulates cellulose synthase secretion from the endomembrane system in Arabidopsis” is now available online at Developmental Cell!
The cell wall provides mechanical support and protection to plant cells. Since plant cells must grow and develop within the confines of their cell wall, there is constant communication between the plant cell and its cell wall, called cell wall signaling. In this paper, we investigate the way that plants respond to signals that the cell wall is weak or damaged. We characterize a mechanism by which plants fortify their cell walls in response to stress and find that this mechanism acts through a G-protein coupled receptor-like module that facilitates secretion of cell wall synthesis enzymes.