Xylem vessel cell differentiation: A best model for new integrative cell biology?

Xylem vessels transport water and essential low-molecular-weight compounds throughout vascular plants. To achieve maximum performance as conductive tissues, xylem vessel cells undergo secondary cell wall deposition and programmed cell death to produce a hollow tube-like structure with a rigid outer shell. This unique process has been explored in detail from a cell biology and molecular biology perspective, culmi-nating in the identification of the master transcriptional switches of xylem vessel cell differentiation, the VASCULAR-RELATED NAC-DOMAIN (VND) proteins. High-resolution an-alyses of xylem vessel cell differentiation have since accelerated and are now moving toward single cell-level dissection from a variety of directions. In this review, we introduce the current model of xylem vessel cell differentiation and discuss possible future directions in this field.

Automated summary

Xylem vessels transport water and essential low-molecular-weight compounds throughout vascular plants. The differentiation of xylem vessel cells involves secondary cell wall deposition and programmed cell death, leading to the formation of a hollow tube-like structure with a rigid outer shell. Research has identified key transcriptional switches and is now focusing on dissecting cell differentiation at the single cell level.