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. 1985 Oct;79(2):485–488. doi: 10.1104/pp.79.2.485

Tensile Strength of Cell Walls of Living Cells 1

Nicholas C Carpita 1
PMCID: PMC1074911  PMID: 16664436

Abstract

A gas decompression technique was used to determine the breaking strength of cell walls of single cells. Breaking strengths of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium and the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas eugametos were 100 and 95 atmospheres, respectively, while those of sporophytes of the water mold Blastocladiella emersonii were 65 atmospheres, and those of suspension cultured cells of carrot were only 30 atmospheres. Estimation of wall tensile stress based on breaking pressures, cell radii, and estimation of wall thickness, indicates that microfibrillar walls are not necessarily stronger than walls of primitive organisms. Hence, alternative hypotheses for their evolution must be considered.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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