Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by He, X.-Q.
Right arrow Articles by Itoh, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by He, X.-Q.
Right arrow Articles by Itoh, T.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by He, X.-Q.
Right arrow Articles by Itoh, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Plant and Cell Physiology, 2002, Vol. 43, No. 2 186-195
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Toward Understanding the Different Function of Two Types of Parenchyma Cells in Bamboo Culms

Xin-Qiang He1, Kiyoshi Suzuki2,3, Shinichi Kitamura3, Jin-Xing Lin4, Ke-Ming Cui1 and Takao Itoh2,5

1 College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871 China 2 Wood Research Institute, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011 Japan 3 Graduate School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, Osaka Prefecture University, Gakuen-cho 1-1, Sakai, Osaka, 599-8531 Japan 4 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093 China

The bamboo, woody monocot, has two types of parenchyma cells in the ground tissues of its culm, in contrast to a single type of parenchyma cell in rice, maize and other major crop species. The distribution of cell wall components, including lignin, (1->3), (1->4)-ß-D-glucans (MGs), the highly-substituted glucuronoarabinoxylans (hsGAXs) and low-branched xylans (lbXs) in ground parenchyma tissue of Phyllostachys heterocycla var. pubescens culms was studied at various developmental stages using light microscopy (LM), UV-microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and immunolabeling techniques. The short parenchyma cell walls were lignified in 2-month-old bamboo culms just as the long parenchyma cell walls were. The lignified regions were confined to the portions in contact with the long parenchyma cell walls, while the walls at the cell corner region never lignified, even in 7-year-old culms. Significant differences were also found in the hemicellulose distribution between the short and long parenchyma cell walls. In bamboo parenchyma tissue, MGs were localized in short parenchyma cell walls and few were found in long parenchyma cell walls in both young and 7-year-old culms. The distribution of hsGAXs was similar to that of MGs in young culms, but they only appeared in the cell corner region of short parenchyma cells in old culms. Low-branched xylans were distributed in the lignified, but not in unlignified parenchyma cell walls. Based on this evidence, the differences of function in both short and long parenchyma cells in a bamboo culm are discussed.

5 Corresponding author: E-mail: titoh@kuwri.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Fax, +81-774-38-3635.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.