Cellulose microfibrils textures

Cellulose microfibrils are deposited by cellulose synthases into the cell wall in often strikingly regular patterns. Here we discuss several mechanisms that have been put forward to explain the alignment of cellulose microfibrils that gives rise to ordered cell wall textures the hypothesis that cortical microtubules align cellulose microfibrils during their deposition, the liquid crystal hypothesis in which cellulose microfibrils self-assemble into textures after their deposition, the templated incorporation hypothesis, and the geometrical theory in which the density of active cellulose synthase complexes inside the plasma membrane may dictate the architecture of the cell wall. 

The cell wall texture is a composite of cellulose microfibrils (CMFs) arranged in one CMF thick lamellae. The orientation of the CMFs within a lamella is constant, but may vary from lamella to lamella. The most striking texture is the helicoidal wall, which consists of subsequent lamellae in which the orientation of the CMFs... 

Nguyen, X.T. and Z. Tan, Surface treatment with texturized microcrystalline cellulose microfibrils for improved paper and paper board. United States Patent 2006 US... 

---