Molecular rigidity in dry and hydrated onion cell walls

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation experiments can provide information on the rigidity of individual molecules within a complex structure such as a cell wall, and thus show how each polymer can potentially contribute to the rigidity of the whole structure. We measured the proton magnetic relaxation parameters T-2 (spin-spin) and T-1 rho (spin-lattice) through the C-13-nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of dry and hydrated cell walls from onion (Allium cepa L.) bulbs. Dry cell walls behaved as rigid solids. The form of their T-2 decay curves varied on a continuum between Gaussian, as in crystalline solids, and exponential, as in more mobile materials. The degree of molecular mobility that could be inferred from the T-2 and T-1 rho decay patterns was consistent with a crystalline state for cellulose and a glassy state for dry pectins. The theory of composite materials may be applied to explain the rigidity of dry onion cell walls in terms of their components. Hydration made little difference to the rigidity of cellulose and most of the xyloglucan shared this rigidity, but the pectic fraction became much more mobile. Therefore, the cellulose/xyloglucan microfibrils behaved as solid rods, and the most significant physical distinction within the hydrated cell wall was between the microfibrils and the predominantly pectic matrix. A minor xyloglucan fraction was much more mobile than the microfibrils and probably corresponded to cross-links between them. Away from the microfibrils, pectins expanded upon hydration into a nonhomogeneous, but much softer, almost-liquid gel. These data are consistent with a model for the stress-bearing hydrated cell wall in which pectins provide limited stiffness across the thickness of the wall, whereas the cross-linked microfibril network provides much greater rigidity in other directions.