Molecular Mechanism of Water Transport Through Cellulose Cell Wall Matrix

Abstract

In plant living tissue, water can flow across cells by different paths, through cell membranes (transcellular path) and plasmodesmata (symplastic path), or through the continuous cell walls matrix (apoplastic path). The relative contribution of these three paths in living tissue is currently unclear and could vary according to species, tissue developmental stage or physiological conditions. Experiments suggested that apoplastic water movement predominates during transpiration. The objective of this study was to investigate the hydraulic process of cellulose cell wall pathway. The effective pore diameter for water flow through the primary wall matrix is between 2 and 20nm. Inside the cell wall polymer porous, there exist hydrophilic/hydrophobic crystal surfaces based on structure anisotropic. Besides, hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction and van der Waals (vdW) dispersion force play an important role in water transport inside the Nano cellulose porous. Therefore, the molecular dynamics simulation was applied to reveal the molecular mechanism of surface boundary effect together with various driving force during water passing through cellulose cell wall matrix Nano channel.