The structure of the cell wall in some species of the filamentous green alga Cladophora

Abstract

With a view to extending the work on Valonia , the cell walls of several species of Cladophora have been examined in detail by means of X-ray diffraction photographs and the microscope. The walls are found to consist of layers in which the cellulose chains in any one layer are inclined to those in the preceding and subsequent layers at an angle whose average is less than 90°. The two sets of striations on the layers of the wall correspond closely to the directions of the cellulose chains. Each set of chains forms a spiral round the cell, and the spirals are of opposite sign. One tends to be flat and th e other steep. On the whole, th e steep spiral tends to become steeper on passing from the base of the filament to the tip, and the flat spiral flatter. In any one cell of the filament, the steep spiral is steepest at the end nearer the filament tip and the flat spiral flattest. Wherever such changes in inclination occur, the angle between the chains tends to remain constant. It is suggested that cell elongation is the factor causing the inclination of the steeper spiral to vary, and that the behaviour of the flatter spiral is best explained by the assumption of a protoplasmic mechanism causing a periodic change in the direction of cellulose chains through a constant angle. The development of a branch cell is reviewed and is found to proceed as the above suggestions would indicate.