Preferred crystallographic orientation of cellulose in plant primary cell walls

Abstract

Cellulose is synthesized as microfibrils of β-1,4-linked glucan chains arranged in a crystalline lattice. Here Ye et al. use grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering to show that cellulose crystals are preferentially orientated parallel to the plant cell wall, rather than as twisting microfibrils as previously hypothesized.