The biochemical analysis of cellulose biosynthesis by plants has been a difficult problem due to the lack of a reliable assay procedure for cellulose synthase activity. Recently, the celA1 gene was cloned from cotton fiber, and this gene was identified from the rsw1 mutant of Arabidopsis as a catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase (Arioli et al. 1998). The cloning of these genes enables us to ...

Bacterial crystalline cellulose is used in biomedical and industrial applications, but the molecular mechanisms of synthesis are unclear. Unlike most bacteria, which make non-crystalline cellulose, Gluconacetobacter hansenii extrudes profuse amounts of crystalline cellulose. Its cellulose synthase (AcsA) exists as a complex with accessory protein AcsB, forming a 'terminal complex' (TC) that has...

Chromatographic analysis of organelle-associated citrate synthase activity revealed distinct mitochondrial and glyoxysomal forms of the enzyme. The chromatographic elution patterns on hydroxylapatite, carboxymethylcellulose and DEAE-cellulose of citrate synthase from the endosperm of 4.5-day-old castor bean seedlings revealed significant differences for mitochondrial and glyoxysomal activities ...

Cellulose biosynthesis in plant secondary cell walls forms the basis of vascular development in land plants, with xylem tissues constituting the vast majority of terrestrial biomass. We used plant lines that contained an inducible master transcription factor controlling xylem cell fate to quantitatively image fluorescently tagged cellulose synthase enzymes during cellulose deposition in living ...

Plant cell walls are complex structures composed of high-molecular-weight polysaccharides, proteins, and lignins. Among the wall polysaccharides, cellulose, a hydrogen-bonded β-1,4-linked glucan microfibril, is the main load-bearing wall component and a key precursor for industrial applications. Cellulose is synthesized by large multi-meric cellulose synthase (CesA) complexes, tracking along co...

Plant growth and organ formation depend on the oriented deposition of load-bearing cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall. Cellulose is synthesized by plasma membrane-bound complexes containing cellulose synthase proteins (CESAs). Here, we establish a role for the cytoskeleton in intracellular trafficking of cellulose synthase complexes (CSCs) through the in vivo study of the green fluorescent...

More than ten â-glycosyltransferases are now recognized that have limited similarity to the amino acid sequence of cellulose synthase from Acetobacter xylinum. Using hydrophobic cluster analysis (HCA), we recently identified two domains and putative catalytic residues in the processive âglycosyltransferases. In this study, we have found expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from higher plants (Arabido...

Specific cDNA fragments corresponding to putative cellulose synthase genes (CesA) were inserted into potato virus X vectors for functional analysis in Nicotiana benthamiana by using virus-induced gene silencing. Plants infected with one group of cDNAs had much shorter internode lengths, small leaves, and a "dwarf" phenotype. Consistent with a loss of cell wall cellulose, abnormally large and in...

Novel mutations in the RSW1 and KNOPF genes were identified in a large-scale screen for mutations that affect cell expansion in early Arabidopsis embryos. Embryos from both types of mutants were radially swollen with greatly reduced levels of crystalline cellulose, the principal structural component of the cell wall. Because RSW1 was previously shown to encode a catalytic subunit of cellulose s...