ROLE OF CELL WALLS IN PLANT ADAPTATION TO FLOODING

Flooding of soil negatively influences growth and development of plants up to their death. Exogenous factors, including poor light, change the content and diffusion rate of CO2 and O2 and they are main that influence submerged plant. Cell walls actively participate in the mechanisms of plant adaptation to flooding. The structural, biochemical and genetic changes of cell walls under artificial and natural submergence are described. Plant cell walls are involved in adaptation to flood as expressed by absence of stomata and wax in leaf epidermis, loosening of cell walls, presence of cuticle pores, decrease of content of crystalline form of cellulose, increase of amorphous cellulose and hemicelluloses content, intensification of polysaccharide callose synthesis, change in a ratio of syringyl/quaiacyl monolignols, change in calcium balance and also expression of the specific genes.