Tag: Cell Walls

Šola et al. examine how galactose alters rhamnogalacturonan-I properties. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.000954 By Krešimir Šola and George W. Haughn Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada Background: Pectin is a component of the plant…

Endomembrane vesicles carry not only secreted proteins but also carbohydrates for cell wall synthesis, yet relatively less is know about this latter process. Wilkop et al. describe a method to investigate the glycan contents of specific subsets of vesicles, to begin to understand how these cargos are…

Lignin, polymerized from aromatic monolignols, provides strength to cell walls but its resistance to enzymatic degradation thwarts efforts to isolate cellulosic carbohydrates from cell walls for biofuels and other applications. It has been shown that lignin’s properties can be altered by the incorporation…

The secondary cell wall (SCW) plays an important role in the structural integrity of plants and is key to efficient water conductivity. Despite the important role of the SCW, little known about how and when SCW components are assembled. Currently, it is understood that cellulose deposition is a precursor…

Plant cell walls are complex and somewhat difficult to study, but also idespensible for plants and central to many of the ways that people use plants (from wood to fibers to fuels). Two new articles review diverse aspects of plant cell wall synthesis. Polko and Kieber (Plant Cell 10.1105/tpc.18.00760…

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits undergo pronounced softening during ripening. Softening is important for flavor development and overall palatability, but also impacts fruit storage, transportability, and shelf life. Shelf life is a particularly important quality trait of tomato fruits affected by…

Most of the carbon dioxide sequestered by plants during photosynthesis is converted into sugars and stored into polysaccharide-enriched cells walls that constitute the majority of the plant biomass. While plants have long been considered a valuable resource of biomaterials for the chemical and textile…

A forthcoming issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology features a set of reviews on the topic of lignin, particularly its chemistry and applications. Lignin is a complex set of polymers that provide structural support to vascular plants (See Renault et al. for insights into lignin's evolutionary origins).…