Atomic force microscopy stiffness tomography on living Arabidopsis thaliana cells reveals the mechanical properties of surface and deep cell-wall layers during growth.

ABSTRACT: Cell-wall mechanical properties play a key role in the growth and the protection of plants. However, little is known about genuine wall mechanical properties and their growth-related dynamics at subcellular resolution and in living cells. Here, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) stiffness tomography to explore stiffness distribution in the cell wall of suspension-cultured Arabidopsis thaliana as a model of primary, growing cell wall. For the first time that we know of, this new imaging technique was performed on living single cells of a higher plant, permitting monitoring of the stiffness distribution in cell-wall layers as a function of the depth and its evolution during the different growth phases. The mechanical measurements were correlated with changes in the composition of the cell

SUBMITTER: Radotic K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3414883 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature