The cell wall and intercellular transport

Abstract

All transport of materials between plant cells involves the cell wall. Such transport can occur in two main ways (Fig. 5.1). One is apoplastic transport, which involves movement through the matrix of the cell wall (the ‘apoplast’), and may occur between neighbouring cells (in which case the distance moved through the wall will be only a few microns) or between widely separated cells. Apoplastic transport involves not only movement through the cell walls but also movement across the plasma membrane, if transport begins or ends within the protoplast. The second form of transport is symplastic transport, which involves movement of material from one cell to another via the plasmodesmata. Here, the cell wall is involved in as far as the plasmodesmata may be considered to be an integral part of the cell wall.