Mechanical stress and lignification

[BEVERLY SEAVEY]

In article <kljjkbn at lynx.unm.edu>, mwfolsom at hydra.unm.edu (Mike Folsom) writes...

>>I only received one e-mail response to my question about the responses
>>of plants to mechanical stress ...
>>
>>I'm interested in factors affecting the resistance of crop varieties to
>>'lodging' damage and I wondered if anyone knows if mechanical stress
>>can, itself, lead to lignification?  I know about 'stress' wood in
>>trees but don't know if more subtle changes occur in response to
>>mechanical stress such as the load from wind blowing on a canopy.
>>

Check out work by Janet Bramm. She had an article in cell showing that
mechanical stimulation of Arabidopsis resulted in increased calmodulin
production ( which I can imagine might be related to increased polysaccaride
production and therefore cell wall stuff). The first article was in 
Cell about 
late 1989, I think
>