Published in Science: Visualization of Secondary Cell Wall Cellulose Synthases

In this false-coloured image, cellulose synthase
proteins are found in the Golgi (orange) and in
bands at the cell surface (green), where they
make cellulose for plant secondary cell walls.

We're very excited this week, because of the release on Oct 8th of Yoshi's article in Science, and all the media coverage that goes along with that!

Congratulations to Yoshi, Miranda and Lacey, as well as their co-authors from the Department of Wood Science in the Faculty of Forestry, Dr. Shawn Mansfield and his students Dr. Lisa McDonnell and Sarah Barkwill. The work was also done in collaboration with Dr. Taku Demura from NAIST in Japan, and Dr. David Ehrhardt from the Carnegie Institute for Science and Stanford University.

• The Paper:
  Visualization of cellulose synthases in Arabidopsis secondary cell walls.
• Perspectives Article:
  Another brick in the wall.
  Written by Rene Schneider and Staffan Persson
• UBC Press Release:
  Researchers create inside-out plants to watch how cellulose forms.
• Carnegie Press Release:
  New way to watch plant-cell walls assemble.

An artificial system allows observation of cellulose synthase proteins (yellow)
as they make cellulose for the secondary cell wall of plant xylem cells.

Cellulose synthase proteins (green) and microtubules 
(magenta) reorganize into bands when cells begin to make
 secondary cell walls.