Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2012 Jul;249(3):433-43.
doi: 10.1007/s00709-011-0302-5. Epub 2011 Jul 8.

The endodermis--development and differentiation of the plant's inner skin

Julien Alassimone  1 , Daniele Roppolo, Niko Geldner, Joop E M Vermeer
Affiliations
Review

The endodermis--development and differentiation of the plant's inner skin

Julien Alassimone et al. Protoplasma. 2012 Jul.

Abstract

Controlling external compound entrance is essential for plant survival. To set up an efficient and selective sorting of nutrients, free diffusion via the apoplast in vascular plants is blocked at the level of the endodermis. Although we have learned a lot about endodermal specification in the last years, information regarding its differentiation is still very limited. A differentiated endodermal cell can be defined by the presence of the "Casparian strip" (CS), a cell wall modification described first by Robert Caspary in 1865. While the anatomical description of CS in many vascular plants has been very detailed, we still lack molecular information about the establishment of the Casparian strips and their actual function in roots. The recent isolation of a novel protein family, the CASPs, that localizes precisely to a domain of the plasma membrane underneath the CS represents an excellent point of entry to explore CS function and formation. In addition, it has been shown that the endodermis contains transporters that are localized to either the central (stele-facing) or peripheral (soil-facing) plasma membranes. These features suggest that the endodermis functions as a polar plant epithelium.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Cell. 1996 Aug 9;86(3):423-33 - PubMed
    1. Trends Cell Biol. 2010 Mar;20(3):142-9 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 2001 Sep 20;413(6853):307-11 - PubMed
    1. Nat Cell Biol. 2008 Feb;10(2):237-44 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 2007 Jul 12;448(7150):209-12 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources