Mechanisms for shaping, orienting, positioning and patterning plant secondary cell walls

Xylem vessels are cells that develop a specifically ornamented secondary cell wall to ensure their vascular function, conferring both structural strength and impermeability. Further plasticity is given to these vascular cells by a range of different patterns described by their secondary cell walls that-as for the growth of all plant organs-are developmentally regulated. Microtubules and their associated proteins, named MAPs, are essential to define the shape, the orientation, the position and the overall pattern of these secondary cell walls. Key actors in this process are the land-plant specific MAP70 proteins which not only allow the secondary cell wall to be positioned at the cell cortex but also determine the overall pattern described by xylem vessel secondary cell walls.