The plant secretory pathway: an essential factory for building the plant cell wall

For building and maintaining the complex structure of the surrounding wall throughout their life, plant cells rely on the endomembrane system, which functions as the main provider and transporter of cell wall constituents. Efforts to understand the mechanisms of synthesis and transport of cell wall materials have been generating valuable information for diverse practical applications. Nonetheless, the identity of the endomembrane components necessary for the transport of cell wall enzymes and polysaccharides is not well known. Evidence indicates that plant cells can accomplish secretion of cell wall constituents through multiple pathways during development or under stress conditions and, that compared with other eukaryotes, they rely on a highly diversified toolkit of proteins for membrane traffic. This suggests that production of the cell wall in plants consists of intricate and highly regulated pathways. In this review, we summarize important discoveries that have allowed the activities of the plant secretory pathway to be linked to the production and deposition of cell wall-synthesizing enzymes and polysaccharides.