Cell Cells represent the smallest structural and functional units of life.

Living organisms consist of single cells or of complexes of cells.

(1) All organisms are composed of one or more cells, (2) The chemical reactions of a living organism, including its energy-related processes and its biosynthetic processes, occur within cells, (3) Cells arise from other cells, and (4) Cells contain the hereditary information of the organisms of which they are a part, and this information is passed on from parent to daughter cell. The word cell, meaning little room, was introduced by Robert Hooke in the seventeenth century to describe the small cavities separated by cell walls in cork tissue. Based on the degree of internal organization of their cells, two fundamentally distinct groups of organisms are now recognized: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The prokaryotes (pro, before; karyon, nucleus) are represented by the Archaea and Bacteria, including the cyanobacteria, and the eukaryotes (eu, true; karyon, nucleus) by all other living organisms.

Cell Wall The presence of a cell wall distinguishes plant cells from animal cells. The cell wall is rigid and therefore limits the size of the protoplast, preventing rupture of the plasma membrane when the protoplast enlarges following the uptake of water. The cell wall largely determines the size and shape of the cell, the texture of the tissue, and the final form of the plant organ. Cell types are often identified by the structure of their walls, reflecting the close relationship between cell wall structure and cell function. Cell walls contain a variety of enzymes and play important roles in

absorption, transport, and secretion of substances in plants. Experimental evidence indicates that molecules released from cell walls are involved in cell-to-cell signaling, influencing cellular differentiation. In addition the cell wall may play a role in defense against bacterial and fungal pathogens by receiving and processing information from the surface of the pathogen and transmitting this information to the plasma membrane of the host cell. Through gene-activated processes, the host cell may become resistant to attack through the production of phytoalexinsantibiotics that are toxic to theor through the deposition of substances such as lignins, suberin, or callose, which may act as passive barriers to invasion.

Plant cells typically have a cell wall containing a living protoplast. The layer that contacts the walls of adjacent cells is termed the middle lamella. Following cessation of growth, many cells develop a secondary cell wall which is deposited on the inside surface of the primary wall. Both primary and secondary walls consist of cellulose microfibrils embedded in a matrix and oriented in different directions. Secondary cell walls consist mostly of cellulose, but primary walls commonly contain a high proportion of hemicelluloses in the gel-like matrix, affording a greater degree of plasticity to the wall of the growing cell. The secondary wall can also contain deposits of lignin (in sclerenchymatous cells) or suberin (in many periderm cells), and often appears lamellated. Thin areas of the primary wall, which usually correspond with thin areas of the walls of neighbouring cells, are primary pit fields, and usually have protoplasmic strands (plasmodesmata) passing through them, connecting the protoplasts of neighbouring cells36.

The connected living protoplasts are collectively termed the symplast. Primary pit fields often remain as thin areas of the wall even after a secondary wall has been deposited, and are then termedpits, or pit-pairs if there are two pits connecting adjacent cells. Pits may be simple, as in most parenchyma cells, or bordered, as in tracheary elements. In simple pits the pit cavity is of more or less uniform width, whereas in bordered pits the secondary wallarches over the pit cavity so that the opening to the cavity is relatively narrow. Through a light microscope the outer rim of the primary pit field appears as a border around the pit opening. The cell protoplast is contained within a plasma membrane. It consists of cytoplasm that encloses bodies such as the nucleus, plastids and mitochondria, and also non-protoplasmic contents such as oil, starch or crystals. The nucleus, which is bounded by a nuclear membrane, often contains one or more recognizable bodies (nucleoli) together with the chromatin in the nuclear sap. During cell division the chromatin becomes organized into chromosomes. Most cells possess a single nucleus, but examples of multinucleate cells (coenocytes) include the non-articulated laticifers found in many plant families (chapter 1.4). Such cells elongate and penetrate established tissues by intrusive tip growth, in which the cell apices secrete enzymes that dissolve the middle lamellae of neighbouring cells; bifurcation occurs when they encounter an obstacle