Shade avoidance in plants involves rapid shoot elongation to grow toward the light. Cell wall-
modifying mechanisms are vital regulatory points for control of these elongation responses.
Two protein families involved in cell wall modification are expansins and xyloglucan
endotransglucosylase/hydrolases. We used an alpine and a prairie ecotype of Stellaria
longipes differing in their response to shade to study the regulation of cell wall extensibility
in response to low red to far-red ratio (R/FR), an early neighbor detection signal, and dense …

This is clearly evident in the herbaceous perennial S. longipes which exhibits a circumpolar
distribution and is able to inhabit diverse environmental niches such as alpine, prairie,
montane and sand dune where among other characteristics, light conditions vary drastically
(Chinnappa et al., 2005). Two ecotypes of S. longipes, the alpine and the prairie, are of
particular interest in the context of shade avoidance. The