Figure 8 Connections between the plasma membrane and cell wall. A, Some cells in an onion bulb scale leaf epidermis, stained with the fluorescent dye DIOC(6) and viewed by confocal microscopy. Cytoplasm is seen as pale strands at the cell surface, traversing the large vacuole and often passing to the nucleus. Cell boundaries are bright because the surface cytoplasm (especially endoplasmic reticulum) is intensely fluorescent. B, Precisely the same field of view after plasmolysis in 0.6 M sucrose. The cell walls are now visible as dark lines between the shrunken protoplasts, which still show brightly fluorescent surfaces. C, A reconstruction of many planes of focus at a higher magnification to show some of the hundreds of stretched strands of plasma membrane that connect the protoplasts to the cell wall. These strands form because molecules in the plasma membrane (and peripheral cytoplasm) remain tethered to the wall during plasmolysis. The plasma membrane therefore becomes pulled out into very fine strands when the protoplasts shrink. (A and B are based on Gunning and Steer 1996; C, micrograph courtesy B.E.S. Gunning)