The dietary replacement of available carbohydrates (mainly starch) by digestible fibre was assessed on rabbit growth and digestion. Two diets supplying hemicellulose (diet HC) or a mix of hemicellulose and pectins (HC 1 P) were compared to a control diet having a higher starch content, but a similar content in low digested fibre (lignocellulose ADF 5 155 g/kg). Three groups of 17 rabbits were a...

The emulsifying characteristics of pectins isolated from six different okra genotypes were investigated and their structure-function relationships have been evaluated. Emulsion formation and stabilization of acidic oil-in-water emulsions (pH 2.0, φ = 0.1) were studied by means of droplet size distribution, ζ-potential measurements, viscometry, interfacial composition analysis and fluorescence m...

Brachypodium distachyon L. Beauv. (Brachypodium) is a species that has become an excellent model system for gaining a better understanding of various areas of grass biology and improving plant breeding. Although there are some studies of an in vitro Brachypodium culture including somatic embryogenesis, detailed knowledge of the composition of the main cell wall components in the embryogenic cal...

Boron is an important micronutrient for plants. However, boron is also toxic to cells at high concentrations, although the mechanism of this toxicity is not known. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of boron toxicity on Malus domestica pollen tube growth and its possible regulatory pathway. Our results showed that a high concentration of boron inhibited pollen germination and tube growth a...

As the outer boundary of plant cells, the cell wall is integral to all aspects of plant growth, development, and interactions with the environment. Dicot primary cell walls are composed of a network of cellulose, hemicellulose and proteins embedded in a matrix of acidic pectins. Pectins are synthesized in the Golgi apparatus by the sequential addition of nucleotide sugars by glycosyltransferase...

The plant cell wall shows a great diversity regarding its chemical composition, which may vary significantly even during different developmental stages. In this study, we analysed the distribution of several cell wall epitopes in embryos of Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium). We also described the variations in the nucleus shape and the number of nucleoli that occurred in some embryo cells....

Microbial pectinases has been employed vigorously for the juice clarification since recent times. The juice clarification procedures carried out in industries mainly involve bio-catalyzed depectinization and fining by incorporation of pectinases to achieve pectin degradation. Pectins are fibrelike structure which makes the clarification process more complicated. Pectinases are enzymes which deg...

Pectin methylesterase (PME, EC 3.1.11) demethoxylates pectins and is believed to be involved in degradation of pectic cell wall components by polygalacturonase in ripening tomato fruit. We have introduced antisense and sense chimeric PME genes into tomato to elucidate the role of PME in fruit development and ripening. Fruits from transgenic plants expressing high levels of antisense PME RNA sho...

Cell wall pectins are some of the most complex biopolymers known, and yet their functions remain largely mysterious. The aim of this paper was to deepen the study of the spatial pattern of pectin distribution in the aperture of Oenothera hookeri.velans ster/+ster fertile pollen. We used "in situ" immunocytochemical techniques at electron microscopy, involving monoclonal antibodies JIM5 and JIM7...

Pectins are acidic carbohydrates that comprise a significant fraction of the primary walls of eudicotyledonous plant cells. They influence wall porosity and extensibility, thus controlling cell and organ growth during plant development. The regulated degradation of pectins is required for many cell separation events in plants, but the role of pectin degradation in cell expansion is poorly defin...