Three-dimensional structure of wood

Butterfield, B. G.; Meylan, B. A.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-8146-4

Cited by 90 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…Are the interior surfaces of the xylem, the plants' hydraulic system, free of any crevices or locations with hydrophobic properties? One quick look at any scanning electron micrograph of xylem lays to rest the idea that there are no surface irregularities (e.g., Butterfield and Meylan, 1980), so what do plants do to prevent bubbles from nucleating there?…”

Section: Invited Special Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…But what are the chemical and physical characteristics of the wall surfaces along which water travels on its way from roots to leaves? The lumen-facing surface layer of secondary cell walls is usually called the S3 layer or tertiary wall (Liese, 1963;Butterfield and Meylan, 1980;Panshin and de Zeeuw, 1980). It is very thin in angiosperms, about 100-250 nm in vessels (Harada, 1965;Fromm et al, 2003;Xu et al, 2006b;Kim and Daniel, 2012) and is defined by the interwoven and more swollen nature of microfibrils embedded in amorphous material, rather than the more parallel orientation of thinner microfibrils observed in the underlying and much thicker S2 layer (Liese, 1963).…”

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confidence: 99%

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From the sap's perspective: The nature of vessel surfaces in angiosperm xylem

Schenk

Espino

Rich‐Cavazos

et al. 2018

American J of Botany

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Plant xylem is a unique evolutionary invention: It functions as a negative pressure hydraulic system that can move vast quantities of water and solutes over distances longer than 100 m. No other kind of organism transports liquids under negative pressure, and the most successful attempts to build an artificial negative pressure hydraulic system succeeded only to move a small amount of water over a few centimeters in a single microchannel (Wheeler and Stroock, 2008). That experiment proved that it is possible to move water under negative pressure, but it left the question unanswered how plants can do this so effectively and over such long distances. Somehow plants manage to move large volumes of water in heterogeneous channels that range in diameter from nanometers to a few hundred micrometers, that is, in nanofluidic and microfluidic systems where water moves very close to surfaces of other phases, both solid and gas (Eijkel and van den Berg, 2005;Squires and Quake, 2005). Plants move all this water efficiently along these phase surfaces without constantly creating gas bubbles in the system . What do we actually know about these surfaces in xylem conduits (i.e., vessels and tracheids)? INVITED SPECIAL ARTICLE PREMISE OF THE STUDY:Xylem sap in angiosperms moves under negative pressure in conduits and cell wall pores that are nanometers to micrometers in diameter, so sap is always very close to surfaces. Surfaces matter for water transport because hydrophobic ones favor nucleation of bubbles, and surface chemistry can have strong effects on flow. Vessel walls contain cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectins, proteins, and possibly lipids, but what is the nature of the inner, lumen-facing surface that is in contact with sap?METHODS: Vessel lumen surfaces of five angiosperms from different lineages were examined via transmission electron microscopy and confocal and fluorescence microscopy, using fluorophores and autofluorescence to detect cell wall components. Elemental composition was studied by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and treatments with phospholipase C (PLC) were used to test for phospholipids.KEY RESULTS: Vessel surfaces consisted mainly of lignin, with strong cellulose signals confined to pit membranes. Proteins were found mainly in inter-vessel pits and pectins only on outer rims of pit membranes and in vessel-parenchyma pits. Continuous layers of lipids were detected on most vessel surfaces and on most pit membranes and were shown by PLC treatment to consist at least partly of phospholipids. CONCLUSIONS:Vessel surfaces appear to be wettable because lignin is not strongly hydrophobic and a coating with amphiphilic lipids would render any surface hydrophilic. New questions arise about these lipids and their possible origins from living xylem cells, especially about their effects on surface tension, surface bubble nucleation, and pit membrane function.

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Section: Invited Special Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

From the sap's perspective: The nature of vessel surfaces in angiosperm xylem

Schenk

Espino

Rich‐Cavazos

et al. 2018

American J of Botany

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“…Various imaging methods for the observation of cellular structures at microscopic resolution are available (Butterfi eld and Meylan 1980 ). Optical and electron microscopy (EM) are both essential surface evaluation methods for thicker samples, but are also suitable for analysis of deeper layers within thin samples (transmission mode).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrotron-based tomographic microscopy (SbTM) of wood: development of a testing device and observation of plastic deformation of uniaxially compressed Norway spruce samples

et al. 2012

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To understand better the structure-property relationships of wood in situ, nondestructive synchrotron-based tomographic microscopy (SbTM) with subcellular resolution is useful. In this context, an in situ testing device was developed to determine the cellular response of wood to mechanical loading. Different rotationally symmetric specimens were tested to synchronize the failure areas to the given scanning areas. Norway spruce samples were uniaxially compressed in the longitudinal direction and scanned in situ at several increasing relative forces ending up in the plastic deformation regime. A suffi ciently high quality in situ tomography was demonstrated. The reconstructed data allowed the observation of the load-dependent development of failure regions: cracks and buckling on the microstructure were clearly visible. Future investigations with SbTM on different wood species, loading directions, and different moisture contents are promising in terms of the micromechanical behavior of wood.

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“…The angle that the cellulose microfibril make to the axis of the cell wall is known as the microfibril angle (MFA). Microfibrils are present in each of the cell wall layers (Butterfield, 1980). The microfibrils is the smallest component of the cell wall which can be visualized by transmission electron microscopy occurring along fibril 3-4 nm in diameter and it consists of a group of cellulose surrounded by a sheath of hemicellulose (Harris and Meylan, 1965).…”

Section: Cellulose Microfibrilsmentioning

confidence: 99%