![]() ![]() These are just a few examples of broad unanswered questions that could impact many fields of basic and applied plant research. Plant cells are connected by cell-cell channels (plasmodesmata), but little is understood of their molecular structure, biogenesis and regulation. Membrane trafficking pathways in plant cells are highly elaborated, but the diversity of trafficking compartments and their functional organization are poorly understood. Proteins have been observed to cluster into speckles in the nucleus and in microdomains in the cell membrane, but we do not know the composition, diversity and indeed function of most of these subcellular structures. For example, plants synthesize a variety of natural products that are consumed for sustenance and medicinal purposes, but the cellular organization of many pathways is not understood and we do not know whether enzymes in a metabolic pathway are generally physically linked to provide a metabolic tunnel for efficient channeling of metabolites. Advances in genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and microscopy have produced detailed pictures of important cellular components, pathways and mechanisms in higher plants, but many structural and functional features of plant cells remain to be understood at a molecular level and it is highly likely that important features and compartments remain to be discovered and elucidated. A comprehensive understanding of plant cell structure and function at a molecular level is essential to uncover the mechanisms that plants use to produce the services we depend upon. Nearly 200 years later, Schleiden’s and Schwann’s investigations of plant and animal micro-anatomy led to the theory that these cells were in fact the fundamental organizational units of life. Information Gaps in Plant Cell Science and the Need for a Plant Cell AtlasĬells were first described in slices of cork by Robert Hooke in 1665. ![]()
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