Cell wall formation in secondary xylem of Pinus strobus L.

Summary Vesicular membrane-bound bodies that participate in forming the cell wall of differentiating xylem cells in white pine appeared on electron microscopical examination to originate from the Golgi apparatus. Golgi bodies released vesicles that contained dark material, fibrillar material, or no contents. The vesicles were seen at different stages on their path to the cell wall; their contents came in contact with the wall by fusion of vesicular membranes with the plasmalemma. Individual filaments of fibrillar material within the vesicles were 60 to 80 Å in diameter; structurally they resembled the fibrillar component of the existing wall and became intertwined with the wall. The authors assume the dark material in the Golgi-derived vesicles represents the hemicellulosic and the pectic components of the wall, and the fibrillar material, the cellulosic.Maintained in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin.