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Salt stress is one of the major and most common challenges that confront plants, and also would have been a major stressor during the colonization of land by Streptophyte algae ~500 million years ago. Penium margaritaceum is one of the closest known algal relatives to land plants, and its cell wall closely resembles the primary cell wall of higher plants. The inner layer of the cell wall is composed of cellulose, which is the major structural component of the cell wall. The outer layer is composed mainly of pectin (homogalacturonan), which cross-links with calcium to form a rigid lattice-like structure. Treatment of Penium with various salts has been shown to disrupt pectin architecture, possibly due to incorporation of different metal ions into the cell wall. Structural insights into cell wall composition, dynamics, or repair in Penium may also provide insights into the cell walls of land plants and/or their evolution. Additionally, if algae such Penium, are able to incorporate metals besides calcium into their cell wall, this could provide a possible bioremediation strategy.