IceLab Affiliate Stéphane Verger will give a talk in IceLab titled 'Mechanics and dynamics of cell-cell adhesion in plants' on February 6th at 13.30.
Cell adhesion is a fundamental feature of multicellular life, ensuring tissue integrity while accommodating growth and mechanical stress. In plants, adhesion relies on the cell wall, yet the structural and molecular bases of this process remain poorly understood.
Here, I will present work where we investigated the mechanical architecture of adhesion sites at the tissue level in Arabidopsis thaliana. Using finite element modeling, ultrastructural imaging, and mechanical assays, we reveal that specific discret domains of the cell wall play a key role in maintaining cell attachment, which challenges the former “textbook” view on the principle of cell adhesion in plant. Importantly, this shifts the adhesion problem from being about glue to being more about wall structure and geometry. It raises the question of how this scales across different levels (cell wall, cell, tissue, and organ) and to which extent cell shape and tissue topology are key factors for maintaining tissue cohesion.
Drop in to IceLab (MazeMap link) or join via Zoom: IceLab Living Room Zoom 612 568 7586 https://umu.zoom.us/my/icelabcouch
Every Friday between lunch time and fika there will be informal internal talks or open seminars in 2026. Interested people are welcome to drop in, and free to stay for IceLab Friday Fika afterwards. Contact Gérard Rocher-Ros or Gabrielle Beans to find out more.
