The S2 Layer in the Tracheid Walls of Picea abies Wood: Inhomogeneity in Lignin Distribution and Cell Wall Microstructure

Holzforschung ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adya P. Singh ◽  
Geoffrey Daniel

Summary Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the walls of Picea abies axial tracheids showed the distribution of lignin in the S2 layer to be inhomogenous. At relatively low magnifications, some parts of the outer and inner S2 layer appeared more electron dense than the mid region in the tracheids which were in contact with or in proximity to a ray. At similar magnifications, the presence of radial and tangential features was observed in the S2 layer of the tracheids which were in contact with or close to rays as well as in those which occurred elsewhere. Higher magnification views showed the S2 layer to be differentiated into electron lucent and dense regions in both radial and tangential directions. A comparison of the counts made of lignin particles in these regions suggested that the differentiation of the S2 wall into lucent and dense regions resulted from inhomogenous distribution of lignin observable at a nano level.

BioResources ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. P. S. Abdul Khalil ◽  
M. Siti Alwani ◽  
A. K. Mohd Omar

The chemical composition, anatomical characteristics, lignin distribution, and cell wall structure of oil palm frond (OPF), coconut (COIR), pine-apple leaf (PALF), and banana stem (BS) fibers were analyzed. The chemical composition of fiber was analyzed according to TAPPI Methods. Light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to observe and determine the cell wall structure and lignin distribution of various agro-waste fibers. The results revealed differences in anatomical characteristics, lignin distributions, and cell wall structure of the different types of fibers investigated. Nevertheless, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrographs have confirmed that the well wall structure, in each case, could be described in terms of a classical cell wall structure, consisting of primary (P) and secondary (S 1 , S 2 , and S 3 ) layers.


1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1059-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara M. MacKinnon ◽  
Michael D. B. Burt

The mature spermatozoa from Bothrimonus sturionis (Pseudophyllidea), Pseudanthobothrium hanseni (Tetraphyllidea), and Monoecocestus americanus (Cyclophyllidea) were examined using transmission electron microscopy. Transverse sections of the sperm of B. sturionis indicate that the number of sperm axonemes varies from one to eight, with approximately one-third of the sperm containing two axonemes. Likewise, the number of peripheral microtubules lying just within the external plasma membrane varies from 12 to 20. The nucleus is electron lucent and fibrous in appearance. The spermatozoa of B. sturionis show great variation in the material examined and the majority of them are believed to be aberrant. The spermatozoon of P. hanseni contains a single axoneme with the nucleus wrapped in a crescent around it in the anterior region of the sperm. The posterior portion of the spermatozoon is characterized by a helical flange which projects from the main body of the sperm. The spermatozoon of M. americanus is elongate and slender, containing a single axoneme with an electron-dense nucleus coiled around it in the anterior one-third of the sperm. Electron-opaque bodies, which may be glycogen, fill the cytoplasm. The spermatozoa of all three species contain neither an acrosome nor mitochondria. The flagella of all the spermatozoa have a 9 + "1" arrangement of microtubules. The importance of the ultrastructure of spermatozoa in the phylogeny and taxonomy of cestodes is discussed.


1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (12) ◽  
pp. 2483-2489 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. C. Huang ◽  
E. G. Kokko

Transmission electron microscopy revealed that hyphae of the hyperparasite Coniothyrium minitans invade sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, resulting in the destruction and disintegration of the sclerotium tissues. The dark-pigmented rind tissue is more resistant to invasion by the hyperparasite than the unpigmented cortical and medullary tissues. Evidence from cell wall etching at the penetration site suggests that chemical activity is required for hyphae of C. minitans to penetrate the thick, melanized rind walls. The medullary tissue infected by C. minitans shows signs of plasmolysis, aggregation, and vacuolization of cytoplasm and dissolution of the cell walls. While most of the hyphal cells of C. minitans in the infected sclerotium tissue are normal, some younger hyphal cells in the rind tissue were lysed and devoid of normal contents.


1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (13) ◽  
pp. 22-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Page ◽  
Luis D'elia ◽  
Richard Sherburne ◽  
Lori L. Graham

Azotobacter vinelandii UWD cells fill with up to 80% (per dry mass) poly(β-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) after 24 h growth in medium containing sugars and fish peptone. However, peptones were not usually added to Azotobacter culture as they induced pleomorphism and compromised cell wall strength. This study examines the morphology of these PHB-producing pleomorphic cells in the transmission electron microscope. PHB-producing cells incubated for 18–24 h were most frequently 2–3 μm diameter spheres containing up to 20 PHB inclusions/cross section, or a calculated ≈ 100 inclusions/cell volume. These inclusions tended to be of small size (≈ 0.5 μm diameter) and became fewer and larger in older cells. The most striking feature of these pleomorphic cells was the apparent extrusion of polymer from the cells. It is unlikely that PHB extrusion is an active process from a viable cell as there was considerable cell wall damage at the point of polymer extrusion. The results suggest that the extrusion of PHB may be the result of polymer expansion, caused by the dehydration of the specimen for transmission electron microscopy, coupled with the inability of the pleomorphic cell wall to retain the expanding polymer. Thus, freeze-substituted sections of similar cells that were prepared without chemical dehydration did not extrude PHB. However, lysed cells prepared for transmission electron microscopy by chemical dehydration also did not extrude PHB, which suggests differences in the fluidity of the PHB in intact cell inclusions and lysed cell granules.Key words: poly(β-hydroxybutyrate), inclusions, polymer expansion, dehydration artifact.


1992 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 687-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
SOUZAN E. EL-KEST ◽  
ELMER H. MARTH

Unfrozen cells of Listeria monocytogenes typically contained no preplasma space exterior to the plasma membrane (PM) when viewed by transmission electron microscopy. Cells of L. monocytogenes strains Scott A, V7, and California (CA), after freezing and frozen storage, exhibited one or more of the following when viewed with transmission electron microscopy: (a) retraction of cytoplasm and infolding of the PM to form mesosomes, (b) extra-and intracellular rupture of the cell wall (CW), (c) formation of intracellular “bubbles,” and (d) damage to the CW and PM that could have resulted from autolysin activity. Type and degree of effect depended on frozen storage time and strain of L. monocytogenes. Lysozyme treatment of unfrozen or frozen/stored (19 d)/thawed cells of strains Scott A, V7, and CA resulted in protoplast formation and damage to the CW. Three stages of protoplast formation were observed when cells of strain CA were frozen, stored 2 weeks, thawed, and treated with lysozyme. More damage to the CW and PM occurred when frozen storage time was extended for up to 6 weeks before treatment with lysozyme. Lipase and lysozyme treatment of unfrozen or frozen/stored (19 d)/thawed cells of strain Scott A resulted in protoplast formation with some damage to the PM and irregularity in shape of cells. Damage to the PM increased with increasing frozen storage time for up to 6 weeks. Some cells of strain CA resisted freezing, frozen storage for 6 weeks, thawing, and treatment with lipase and lysozyme.


2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 520-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Noé ◽  
Henri Chanzy

Cellulose microfibrils from Valonia ventricosa cell-wall fragments were immersed into molten N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide monohydrate (NMMO·H2O), stabilized with n-propyl gallate and kept at 80 °C. The resulting ultrastructural modifications, which were followed by transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction analysis, showed that within minutes the solvent slowly penetrated inside the crystalline microfibrils and progressed as a wedge in between the cellulose chains without cutting them. Prior to dissolution, a longitudinal subfibrillation of the initial microfibrils occurred, leading to the observation of highly swollen microfibrils, which could reach diameters up to three times larger than those of the initial samples. This mode of swelling is compared with those occurring in other systems, where the intracrystalline swelling of cellulose has been described at the ultrastructural level.Key words: cellulose swelling, Valonia cellulose, N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide.


2006 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 2453-2456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julianna LeMieux ◽  
David L. Hava ◽  
Alan Basset ◽  
Andrew Camilli

ABSTRACT The rlrA pathogenicity islet in Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4 encodes three surface proteins, RrgA, RrgB, and RrgC, and three sortase enzymes. Using transmission electron microscopy, cell fractionation, cell wall sorting signal domain swapping, and Western blotting, we show that RrgA and RrgB are incorporated into a multisubunit pilus in S. pneumoniae.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Natalia Voskoboynikova ◽  
Maria Karlova ◽  
Rainer Kurre ◽  
Armen Y. Mulkidjanian ◽  
Konstantin V. Shaitan ◽  
...  

The cell wall sensor Wsc1 belongs to a small family of transmembrane proteins, which are crucial to sustain cell integrity in yeast and other fungi. Wsc1 acts as a mechanosensor of the cell wall integrity (CWI) signal transduction pathway which responds to external stresses. Here we report on the purification of Wsc1 by its trapping in water-soluble polymer-stabilized lipid nanoparticles, obtained with an amphipathic styrene-maleic acid (SMA) copolymer. The latter was employed to transfer tagged sensors from their native yeast membranes into SMA/lipid particles (SMALPs), which allows their purification in a functional state, i.e., avoiding denaturation. The SMALPs composition was characterized by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, followed by two-dimensional image acquisition from single particle transmission electron microscopy to build a three-dimensional model of the sensor. The latter confirms that Wsc1 consists of a large extracellular domain connected to a smaller intracellular part by a single transmembrane domain, which is embedded within the hydrophobic moiety of the lipid bilayer. The successful extraction of a sensor from the yeast plasma membrane by a detergent-free procedure into a native-like membrane environment provides new prospects for in vitro structural and functional studies of yeast plasma proteins which are likely to be applicable to other fungi, including plant and human pathogens.


1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
U.R. Pothakamury ◽  
G.V. Barbosa-Cánovas ◽  
B.G. Swanson ◽  
K.D. Spence

Early stationary phase cells of Staphylococcus aureus were inoculated into a model food, simulated milk ultrafiltrate (SMUF) and subjected to 16, 32, and 64 pulses at electric field intensities of 20, 40 and 60 kV/cm at 13 °C. In addition temperatures of 20, 25 and 30 °C were also tested with 32 pulses and an electric field of 60 kV/cm. The temperature of the SMUF increased by 1-2 ° C at the end of the 64 pulses. Cells subjected to 64 pulses at 20, 40 and 60 kV/cm were observed for ultrastructural changes using scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The cell surface was rough after treatment with electric field when observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cell wall was broken, and the cytoplasmic contents were leaking out of the cell after exposure to 64 pulses at 60 kV/cm when observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The breaking of the cell wall is an indication of electro-mechanical breakdown of the cell. The increase in inactivation with an increase in the electric field strength can be related to the increase in the damage to the cells. Cells subjected to 32 pulses at 60 kV/cm and 13, 20 or 25 °C were compared microscopically with the untreated control cells. Cells subjected to heat treat ment (10 min, at 66 °C) were compared with electric field-treated and untreated control cells. Although important changes were observed in the protoplast, no cell wall breakdown was observed in heat-treated cells when compared to the electric field-treated cells. This result indi cates a different mechanism of inactivation of cells with heat treatment.


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