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- Title
Cellulose-synthesizing terminal complexes and microfibril structure in the brown alga Sphacelaria rigidula (Sphacelariales, Phaeophyceae).
- Authors
Tamura, Hiroshi; Mine, Ichiro; Okuda, Kazuo
- Abstract
The brown alga Sphacelaria rigidula Kützing synthesizes cellulose microfibrils as determined by CSH I-gold labeling. The cellulose microfibrils are thin, ribbon-like structures with a uniform thickness of about 2.6 nm and a variable width in the range of 2.6-30 nm. Some striations appear along the longitudinal axis of the microfibrils. The developed cell wall in Sphacelaria is composed of three to four layers, and cellulose micro- fibrils are deposited in the third layer from the outside of the wall. A freeze fracture investigation of this alga revealed cellulose-synthesizing terminal complexes (TCs), which are associated with the tip of microfibril impressions in the plasmatic fracture face of the plasma membrane. The TCs consist of subunits arranged in a single 1mev row. The average diameter of the subunits is about 6 nm, and the intervals between the neighboring subunits, about 9 nm, are relatively constant. The number of subunits constituting the IC varies between 10 and 100, so that the length of the whole TC varies widely. A model that has been proposed for the assembly of thin, ribbon-like microfibrils was applied to microfibril assembly in Sphacelaria.
- Subjects
BROWN algae; MICROFIBRILS; CELL membranes; PROTOSIPHON; FREEZE fracturing; CELLULOSE synthase
- Publication
Phycological Research, 1996, Vol 44, Issue 1, p63
- ISSN
1322-0829
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1440-1835.1996.tb00039.x