the.com/cell wall
the bouncer that decides a plant's shape, strength, and stubborn refusal to wilt under pressure
means The rigid outer layer surrounding the cell membrane in plants, fungi, bacteria, and some other organisms, giving the cell its shape and protecting it from bursting.
from A plain compound of two old workhorses. "Cell" comes from Latin cella, meaning a small room or storeroom (the same root behind monastery cells and prison cells) — the biologist Robert Hooke borrowed it in the 17th century when he peered at cork through a microscope and thought its tiny chambers looked like the bare little rooms monks lived in. "Wall" is solidly Germanic, from Old English weall, itself borrowed early from Latin vallum, a rampart or palisade. So "cell wall" is literally the rampart around the little room — a fortification wrapped around a monk's cell, which is a fittingly stubborn image for a structure whose whole job is holding the line.
- Made of
- Cellulose, Earth's most abundant organic molecule
- Pressure proof
- Holds back turgor pressure rivaling a car tire
- Animal absence
- Animals ditched it for movement and flexibility
- Penicillin target
- The drug kills bacteria by wrecking their walls
- Wood is this
- Lignified cell walls built every forest and table
plant cell wall — cellulose structure surrounding plant cells, ~70% of cell wall composition
bacterial cell wall — peptidoglycan layer in bacteria like e. coli, provides structural rigidity
fungal cell wall — chitin-based wall in fungi like saccharomyces cerevisiae, differs from plant walls