%A Höfte,Herman %A Peaucelle,Alexis %A Braybrook,Siobhan %D 2012 %J Frontiers in Plant Science %C %F %G English %K Chara corallina,pectin,pectin methylesterase,wall extensibility %Q %R 10.3389/fpls.2012.00121 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2012-June-06 %9 Mini Review %+ Dr Herman Höfte,INRA,Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, UMR1318 INRA/AgroParisTech, Saclay Plant Sciences.,Centre de Versailles Route de St Cyr,Versailles,78026 cedex,France,herman.hofte@versailles.inra.fr %# %! growth control in plants %* %< %T Cell wall mechanics and growth control in plants: the role of pectins revisited %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2012.00121 %V 3 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1664-462X %X How is the extensibility of growing plant cell walls regulated? In the past, most studies have focused on the role of the cellulose/xyloglucan network and the enigmatic wall-loosening agents expansins. Here we review first how in the closest relatives of the land plants, the Charophycean algae, cell wall synthesis is coupled to cell wall extensibility by a chemical Ca2+-exchange mechanism between Ca2+–pectate complexes. We next discuss evidence for the existence in terrestrial plants of a similar “primitive” Ca2+–pectate-based growth control mechanism in parallel to the more recent, land plant-specific, expansin-dependent process.