We describe preparations of plant cell walls and polysaccharides obtained from plant cell walls that are added to food products for two purposes: as modifiers of food texture and/or as dietary fibres with potential health benefits. Although a number of different types of plant cell walls occur, only some are presently exploited. Commercial ‘fibre preparations’ range from those containing mostly...

Concentrated binary mixtures of polymers in solution commonly exhibit immiscibility, resolving into two separate phases each of which is enriched in one polymer. The plant cell wall is a concentrated polymer assembly, and phase separation of the constituent polymers could make an important contribution to its structural organization and functional properties. However, to our knowledge, there ha...

Plant cell wall in woody tissues is a complex matrix, which consists of cellulose, matrix polysaccharides and lignin. The matrix polysaccharides are substituted with acetyl group that are hypothesised to play important roles in determining properties of these polysaccharides. The aim of this thesis was to understand the role of Oacetylation in plants and investigate possibilities for improvemen...

It has been shown previously that aerobic actinomycetes can be separated into four main groups on the basis of their cell wall composition. Six representatives of aerobic actinomycetes (Nocardia asteroides and Micropolyspora brevicatena, cell wall type IV; N. madurae, Microbispora rosea, cell wall type III; Actinoplanes sp., cell wall type II; Streptomyces griseus, cell wall type I) were subjec...

A well-coordinated process is required to construct a complicated structure like the cell wall, which consists of several elements that must be joined appropriately from various sources inside cell. In order successfully moderate dynamic responses developmental and environmental signals, further complexity necessary. The plasma membrane continually actively transporting sugars, enzymes, other w...

Cell adhesion in plants is mediated predominantly by pectins, a group of complex cell wall associated polysaccharides. An Arabidopsis mutant, friable1 (frb1), was identified through a screen of T-DNA insertion lines that exhibited defective cell adhesion. Interestingly, the frb1 plants displayed both cell and organ dissociations and also ectopic defects in organ separation. The FRB1 gene encode...

Plant primary cell walls are composite structures surrounding the protoplast and containing pectins, hemicelluloses, cellulose polysaccharides, as well proteins. Their composition changed during evolution of green lineage from algae to terrestrial plants, i.e., an aquatic a environment. The constraints life in environments have generated new requirements for organisms, necessitating adaptations...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The charophyte green algae (CGA) are thought to be the closest living relatives to the land plants, and ancestral CGA were unique in giving rise to the land plant lineage. The cell wall has been suggested to be a defining structure that enabled the green algal ancestor to colonize land. These cell walls provide support and protection, are a source of signalling molecules, an...

Pectins are a group of plant polysaccharides whose principal component is 1,4-linked a-d-galactosyluronic acid (O’Neill et al., 1990). Pectins are present in the primary cell walls of all seed-bearing plants and in the junction between cells called the middle lamella. The primary wall surrounds growing plant cells, meristematic cells and cells in succulent tissue such as fruit. The secondary wa...

Cell walls of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fruit, prepared so as to minimize residual hydrolytic activity and autolysis, exhibit increasing solubilization of pectins as ripening proceeds, and this process is not evident in fruit from transgenic plants with the antisense gene for polygalacturonase (PG). A comparison of activities of a number of possible cell wall hydrolases indicated t...