Callose is a plant polysaccharide

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...

. It is composed of glucose

Glucose

Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...

 residues linked together through β-1,3-linkages, and is termed a β-glucan

Beta-glucan

β-Glucans are polysaccharides of D-glucose monomers linked by β-glycosidic bonds. β-glucans are a diverse group of molecules that can vary with respect to molecular mass, solubility, viscosity, and three-dimensional configuration...

. It is thought to be manufactured at the cell wall by callose synthases and is degraded by β-1,3-glucanases. It is laid down at plasmodesmata

Plasmodesmata

Plasmodesmata are microscopic channels which traverse the cell walls of plant cells and some algal cells, enabling transport and communication between them. Species that have plasmodesmata include members of the Charophyceae, Charales and Coleochaetales , as well as all embryophytes, better known...

, at the cell plate

Cell plate

thumb|300px|Phragmoplast and cell plate formation in a plant cell during cytokinesis. Left side: Phragmoplast forms and cell plate starts to assemble in the center of the cell. Toawards the right: Phragmoplast enlarges in a donut-shape towards the outside of the cell, leaving behind mature cell...

 during cytokinesis

Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis is the process in which the cytoplasm of a single eukaryotic cell is divided to form two daughter cells. It usually initiates during the late stages of mitosis, and sometimes meiosis, splitting a binucleate cell in two, to ensure that chromosome number is maintained from one generation...

 and during pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 development. It is produced in response to wounding, infection by pathogens, aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 and abscisic acid

Abscisic acid

Abscisic acid , also known as abscisin II and dormin, is a plant hormone. ABA functions in many plant developmental processes, including bud dormancy. It is degraded by the enzyme -abscisic acid 8'-hydroxylase.-Function:...

. Deposits often appear on the sieve plates at the end of the growing season. Callose also forms immediately around the developing meiocyte

Meiocyte

A meiocyte is a cell which is an immediate precursor to a gamete. It is so named because meiosis occurs in the cell. A meiocyte goes through meiosis to form a tetrad. This tetrad consists of 4 genetically different cells that have half the genetic information of the meiocyte from which it came....

s and tetrads of sexually reproducing angiosperms but is not found in related apomictic

Apomixis

In botany, apomixis was defined by Winkler as replacement of the normal sexual reproduction by asexual reproduction, without fertilization. This definition notably does not mention meiosis...

taxa.