Plants have a secret language that scientists are only now starting to decipher

"But now, with the help of modern molecular methods to analyse the wall's make-up and assembly, researchers are starting to uncover more. They're finding that the cell wall is an active, even chatty participant in cellular growth, reproduction and responses to infection. It's constantly receiving and sending signals about its shape and composition. By eavesdropping on those signals, and tweaking or adding to them, scientists are exploring innovative ways to improve agriculture with cell-wall science: protecting crops from disease and engineering new plants or sturdy hybrids."

""For a long time, the cell wall was really thought to be dead," says Alice Cheung, a plant molecular biologist and biochemist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It wasn't until the late twentieth century, Cheung says, that scientists began to reveal the cell wall for the vibrant, ever-changing structure it is. Even then, its complex mix of sugar molecules linked into long, branching polysaccharides kept away all but the most intrepid biochemists."

Plant cell walls were long considered inert structural envelopes, but modern molecular methods reveal them as dynamic, signal-sending and -receiving interfaces. The walls consist of complex polysaccharides and other molecules whose composition and assembly influence cellular growth, reproduction, stress responses and pathogen defense. Researchers can eavesdrop on wall-derived signals and alter them to enhance crop disease resistance, create sturdier hybrids, and enable novel plant crosses. Advances in biochemical analysis and molecular biology make the wall's architecture and communication mechanisms accessible, enabling targeted interventions in wall synthesis, remodeling and intercellular signaling to support agricultural innovation and resilience.

Read at Nature