Phragmoplast

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A microtubule and membrane structure that forms across the middle of a dividing plant cell to guide construction of the new cell wall
2. The framework of microtubules and vesicles that assembles during plant cell division and directs the formation of a new cell plate
3. A set of fibers and membranous material found in dividing plant cells that organizes the building of a dividing wall between daughter cells

Etymology: Phragmoplast is a botanical term for a structure that forms during plant cell division. It is built from the Greek "phragma", meaning "fence" or "partition", and "-plast", from the Greek "plastos", meaning "formed" or "moulded", a suffix that appears in words for living structures such as chloroplast. The name fits the job: in dividing plant cells, the phragmoplast is a scaffold of microtubules and membrane that is assembled across the middle of the cell, where it guides the growth of the new cell wall that splits the cell in two. The "phragma" element is the same Greek root behind "diaphragm", which literally means a partition stretched across the body. That shared root shows how a partition in the chest and a partition in a plant cell were both named for the same act of dividing a space in two.