How the deposition of cellulose microfibrils builds cell wall architecture

Cell walls, the extracytoplasmic matrices of plant cells, consist of an ord ered array of cellulose microfibrils embedded in a matrix of polysaccharide s and glyco-proteins. This construction is reminiscent of steel rods ire re inforced concrete. How a cell organizes these ordered textures around itsel f, creating its own desirable environment, is a fascinating question. We be lieve that nature adopted an economical solution to this design problem: it exploits the geometrical constraints imposed by the shape of the cell and the limited space in which microfibrils are deposited, enabling the wall te xtures essentially to 'build themselves'. This does not imply that the cell cannot control its wall texture. On the contrary, the cell has ample regul atory mechanisms to control wall texture formation by controlling the inser tion of synthases and the distance between individual microfibrils within a wall lamella.