Cuticles, of plants

The hydrophobic waxy cuticle of plants can inhibit the movement and accessibility of nutrients to bacterial cells. However, biosurfactants produced by the majority of epiphytic Pseudomonas spp. decreases the water tension, enabling relatively free movement across the leaf surface to nutrient sources and natural openings such as stomata. Pseudomonas are also known to release a toxin called syringomycin that can produce holes in the plant cell membrane allowing access to intracellular nutrients without necessarily resulting in disease symptoms (Cao et al.r 2005). 

Martin, J.T., and luniper, B.E. (1970) The Cuticles of Plants. Edward Arnold, London. 

Many of the formulations for plant protection are designed to help the active substance to penetrate the cuticle of plant leaves or insects. It is therefore not surprising that these formulations sometimes enhance the skin absorption in humans. To account for this in Europe, EC Directive 91/414 for pesticides requires testing of both the active substance and the formulated product (EEC, 1991). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) requires that the vehicle system duplicates that used in the field (USEPA, 1998). Since many pesticides are... 

Lipids are hydrolysed for example, wax esters are converted into their constituent fatty acids and alcohols. The less soluble components tend to exhibit the greatest inhibition to ingress of hydrolytic enzymes, and so are the most stable towards biodegradation. The waxy components forming the cuticles of plant leaves and stems are among the best preserved biomacromolecules over geological periods (see Section 4.4.la).The transformations of lipids are examined in more detail in Chapter 5. 

Figure 2.30 Structure of monomers of cutin, a cross-linked polyester found in the cuticle of plant leaves.

Fig. 7 Overview of the partitioning among the liquid, solid and/or gas phases of individual compartments [8], Note In the current version of CalTOX (CalTOX4), the plant compartment comprises two sub-compartments [plant surfaces (cuticle) and plant leaf biomass (leaves)]...

Plants were probably the first to have polyester outerwear, as the aerial parts of higher plants are covered with a cuticle whose structural component is a polyester called cutin. Even plants that live under water in the oceans, such as Zoestra marina, are covered with cutin. This lipid-derived polyester covering is unique to plants, as animals use carbohydrate or protein polymers as their outer covering. Cutin, the insoluble cuticular polymer of plants, is composed of inter-esterified hydroxy and hydroxy epoxy fatty acids derived from the common cellular fatty acids and is attached to the outer epidermal layer of cells by a pectinaceous layer (Fig. 1). The insoluble polymer is embedded in a complex mixture of soluble lipids collectively called waxes [1], Electron microscopic examination of the cuticle usually shows an amorphous appearance but in some plants the cuticle has a lamellar appearance (Fig. 2). 

The major function of cutin is to serve as the structural component of the outer barrier of plants. As the major component of the cuticle it plays a major role in the interaction of the plant with its environment. Development of the cuticle is thought to be responsible for the ability of plants to move onto land where the cuticle limits diffusion of moisture and thus prevents desiccation [141]. The plant cuticle controls the exchange of matter between leaf and atmosphere. The transport properties of the cuticle strongly influences the loss of water and solutes from the leaf interior as well as uptake of nonvolatile chemicals from the atmosphere to the leaf surface. In the absence of stomata the cuticle controls gas exchange. The cuticle as a transport-limiting barrier is important in its physiological and ecological functions. The diffusion across plant cuticle follows basic laws of passive diffusion across lipophylic membranes [142]. Isolated cuticular membranes have been used to study this permeability and the results obtained appear to be valid... 

Holloway PJ (1982) The chemical constitution of plant cutins. In Cutler DF, Alvin KL, Price CE (eds) The plant cuticle. Academic Press, London, p 45... 

Edwards D, Abbott GD, Raven JA (1996) Cuticles of early land plants a palaeoecophy-siological evaluation. In Kerstiens G (ed) Plant cuticles an integrated functional approach. BIOS Scientific Publishers, Oxford UK, chap 1... 

Rieder M, Schreiber L (1995) Waxes the transport barriers of plant cuticles. In Hamilton RJ (ed) Waxes chemistry, molecular biology and functions. The Oily Press,... 

Mosle B, Collinson M, Finch P, Stankiewicz A, Scott A, Wilson R (1999) Factors influencing the preservation of plant cuticles a comparison of morphology and chemical composition of modem and fossil examples. Org Geochem 29 1369-1380... 

Tegelaar E, deLeeuw J, Largeau C, Derenne S, Schulten H, Muller R, Boon J, Nip M, Sprenkels J (1989) Scope and limitations of several pyrolysis methods in the structural elucidation of a macromolecular plant constituent in the leaf cuticle of Agave americana L. J Anal Appl Pyrolysis 15 29-54... 

Terrestrial BMOs have also been widely used for monitoring environmental contaminants. In particular, the lipid-like waxy cuticle layer of various types of plant leaves has been used to monitor residues of HOCs in the atmosphere. However, some of the problems associated with aquatic BMOs apply to terrestrial BMOs as well. For example, Bohme et al. (1999) found that the concentrations of HOCs with log KoaS < 9 (i.e., those compounds that should have attained equilibrium) varied by as much as 37-fold in plant species, after normalization of residue concentrations to levels in ryegrass (Lolium spp.). These authors suggested that differences in cuticular wax composition (quality) were responsible for this deviation from equilibrium partition theory. Other characteristics of plant leaves may affect the amount of kinetically-limited and particle-bound HOCs sampled by plant leaves but to a lesser extent (i.e., <4-fold), these include age, surface area, topography of the surface, and leaf orientation. 

Cutin-Wax Interactions. In order to obtain a more complete structural picture of plant cuticle, 13C CPMAS data were also obtained for the polymeric assembly prior to removal of waxes (Figure 5). A second (CH2)n peak appeared in the spectrum, and additional signal intensity in the carboxyl region produced a single broadened peak. Bulk methylene carbons from cutin and wax components exhibited identical values of Tip(H), indicating that they were mixed intimately and shared a common 1H spin reservoir... 

These results demonstrated the usefulness of 13C NMR in studies of molecular structure and dynamics for the polymeric constituents of plant cuticle. Although these materials are insoluble and sometimes present as interpenetrating phases, CPMAS and spin relaxation techniques helped identify important carbon types and provided structural clues to the protective functions of cutin and suberin in terrestrial plants. 

Systemic fungicides are mobile compounds that are able to penetrate the cuticle of leaves and stems and enter the plant symplast or apoplast. These are generally single site of action compounds, very effective at low... 

The physical or petrographic components of coal are defined or described in various ways. In one system, which depends on microscopic observation, the principal components are called exinite, vitrinite, micrinite, and fusinite. Transparency of these in a thin section decreases in that order, whereas reflectance from polished surface increases in the same order. Vitrinite, the major component of most coals, occurs in bands or strands and is usually uniform in appearance, though sometimes shows cell structure exinite consists of the remains of plant spores, pollen, and cuticles with characteristic shape micrinite occurs in very fine granular form or massive structureless, irregular form fusinite shows characteristic fibrous, cellular structure. Semifusinite is transitional between vitrinite and fusinite. On a macroscopic scale, vitrain and... 

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