Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Long-term, High-resolution Confocal Time Lapse Imaging of Arabidopsis Cotyledon Epidermis during Germination
12:01

Long-term, High-resolution Confocal Time Lapse Imaging of Arabidopsis Cotyledon Epidermis during Germination

Published on: December 31, 2012

Polarized cell growth in higher plants.

P K Hepler1, L Vidali, A Y Cheung

  • 1Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Morrill Science Center III, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA. hepler@bio.umass.edu

Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology
|November 1, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Plant cells like root hairs and pollen tubes grow rapidly at their tips. This polarized growth relies on ion gradients, cytoskeletal dynamics, and vesicle transport, crucial for nutrient uptake and fertilization.

More Related Videos

High Resolution Quantification of Crystalline Cellulose Accumulation in Arabidopsis Roots to Monitor Tissue-specific Cell Wall Modifications09:27

High Resolution Quantification of Crystalline Cellulose Accumulation in Arabidopsis Roots to Monitor Tissue-specific Cell Wall Modifications

Published on: May 10, 2016

Imaging Spatial Reorganization of a MAPK Signaling Pathway Using the Tobacco Transient Expression System08:54

Imaging Spatial Reorganization of a MAPK Signaling Pathway Using the Tobacco Transient Expression System

Published on: March 20, 2016

Related Concept Videos

Tonicity in Plants00:53

Tonicity in Plants

Tonicity describes the capacity of a cell to lose or gain water. It depends on the quantity of solute that does not penetrate the membrane. Tonicity delimits the magnitude and direction of osmosis and results in three possible scenarios that alter the volume of a cell: hypertonicity, hypotonicity, and isotonicity. Due to differences in structure and physiology, tonicity of plant cells is different from that of animal cells in some scenarios.Plants and Hypotonic EnvironmentsUnlike animal cells,...
Morphogenesis02:19

Morphogenesis

Plant morphogenesis—the development of a plant’s form and structure—involves several overlapping developmental processes, including growth and cell differentiation. Precursor cells differentiate into specific cell types, which are organized into the tissues and organ systems that make up the functional plant.
Cell Polarization by Rho Proteins01:21

Cell Polarization by Rho Proteins

Cell polarity is the asymmetric distribution of cellular and membrane components, making one side of the cell different from the other. This polarity is essential to many processes such as embryogenesis, axon migration, glucose transport across epithelial cells, and directional cell migration. A migrating cell responds to intracellular or extracellular signals via molecular cascades that reorganize the actin cytoskeleton to establish this polarity. In these cells, the Rho family proteins Cdc42,...
Cell Signaling in Plants01:25

Cell Signaling in Plants

Plant cells communicate to coordinate their cycle of growth, flowering and fruiting, and activities in roots, shoots, and leaves in response to the changing environmental conditions. Plant signaling is distinct from animal signaling. Plants primarily utilize enzyme-linked receptors, whereas the largest class of cell-surface receptors in animals are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Unlike animals, receptor tyrosine kinases are rare in plants. Instead, plants have a diverse class of...
Tonicity in Plants01:20

Tonicity in Plants

Plant cells maintain appropriate osmotic balance in extreme conditions. For instance, plants in dry environments store water in vacuoles, limit the opening of their stoma, and have thick, waxy cuticles to prevent unnecessary water loss. Some species of plants that live in salty environments store salt in their roots. As a result, water osmosis occurs in the root from the surrounding soil.
Tonicity
Tonicity describes the capacity of a cell to lose or gain water depending on the solute...
Cell Adhesion in Plants01:14

Cell Adhesion in Plants

Plants have rigid cell walls that are made up of cell wall polysaccharides that mediate cell-cell adhesion. The primary cell walls of plants consist of two independent and interacting polysaccharide networks: a pectin matrix that embeds the second network comprising cellulose and hemicelluloses.
Pectins are complex heteropolymers mainly composed of negatively-charged α-D-glucopyranosyl uronic acid and some neutral glycosyl residues such as α-L-rhamnopyranose, α-L-arabinofuranose, and...