Host: The Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists
Pages 0270
Tension wood is a reaction wood of angiosperm woody plants. Reaction wood causes the stem to bend by its mechanical action. Tension wood generates much higher tensile growth stress than normal wood. The wood fiber of tension wood has a special secondary cell wall named G-layer which contains no lignin and high amount of cellulose. This layer is thought to be the main part to generate the growth stress of tension wood. On the other hand, tension wood in the transgenic poplar overexpressing xyloglucanase generates much less growth stress than that in the wild type. We compared the ultrastructure of the G-layers from the transgenic and wild poplars. Many cracks were observed in the transgenic plants with clear microfibril structures.
