Sensing when the wall comes tumbling down

Abstract

Fruit ripening involves the activation of many genes, bringing about changes in colour, flavour, and texture. The plant cell can sense events occurring in its cell wall during pathogen invasion, but does it also sense what is happening to the wall as enzymes secreted into the apoplast cause its disassembly during ripening? Now, Paniagua et al. (2020) have combined three powerful tools to probe more deeply into the effects of polygalacturonase activity on cell wall disassembly and its feedback on gene expression.