WHISPER: Wall-integrated HIgh Sensitivity PERception

Every plant cell is physically connected to its neighbours through a continuous cell wall network, which provides mechanical support and also acts as a sensory interface. When the integrity of the wall changes, a monitoring system detects the change and activates signalling pathways. Most cell wall sensors described so far are receptor proteins that recognise wall-derived fragments; how mechanical forces, and subtle ones in particular, influence growth remains poorly understood, partly because controlled, local deformations of the wall are difficult to generate.

WHISPER treats the cell wall as an active medium for the spread of mechanical information. Because the wall network is physically continuous, a local deformation could be redistributed across a tissue, providing a rapid route for signal transfer. The project will: i) develop tools to apply spatially controlled mechanical perturbations to the cell wall; ii) identify mechano-dependent responses through detailed mechanical and compositional analyses; iii) build a model of how chemical and mechanical signalling pathways converge to regulate growth.

The project combines biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, genetics, and biophysics, and is funded by the European Union through a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF).