Imaging of a plant embryo shows that a newly identified signaling module governs cell wall production during the first hours of plant life. Green staining represents the component of the complex related to IMK2, one of two key proteins involved in the module, and red stains for all cell walls. Credit: Washington State University Cell walls are a crucial structure of plant life, protecting cells from damage, giving plants shape, and containing energy-rich nutrients. And yet the process of how the walls begin to form remains mysterious. Researchers from Washington State University have now identified the first known signaling pathway that prompts internal cell components to form exterior walls, as well as discovering the unique routes of energy-dense "cargo" transported into the walls—a discovery that suggests possibilities for designing cell walls to boost nutrition or produce biofuels.…