Plants Need Corsets, Too

Green Beings| We must forgive researchers for bringing corsets out of the closet and into a discussion of botanical structures. Coincidentally, Anne just pondered the notion that hourglass shapes, long associated with corsets, are far less fragile and long-lasting than size-zero waif ones.

On the subject of plants, botanists concur that plants cannot depend on a skeleton for their rigidity. Pilates isn’t enough. If a plant becomes taller, and therefore the cells longer, then the cell wall must be extended in a certain direction. This direction-sensitive growth is enabled by the microfibrils in the cell wall, which are wrapped around the cell in a certain direction like a corset. The position of this ‘corset’ reflects the underlying pattern of parallel microtubules, rigid thin protein tubes, which are located on the inside of the cell wall and the cell membrane. Read on via Science Daily