Loosening of cell walls is an important developmental process in key stages of the plant life cycle, including seed germination, elongation growth, and fruit ripening. Here, we report direct in vivo evidence for hydroxyl radical ((*)OH)-mediated cell wall loosening during plant seed germination and seedling growth. We used electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to show that (*)OH is gener...

The cell walls of plants are themost abundant source of organic carbonon theplanet. This photosynthetically fixed carbon is recycled by microbial enzymes that convert cell wall polysaccharides to monosaccharides and oligosaccharides, a process that is of biological and industrial importance (Sticklen, 2008; Himmel and Bayer, 2009). Plant cell walls are recalcitrant to biological depolymerizatio...

The plant extracellular matrix contains typical polysaccharides such as cellulose, hemicelluloses, and pectins that interact to form dense interwoven networks. Plant cell walls play crucial roles during development and constitute the first barrier of defense against invading pathogens. Cell wall proteomics has greatly contributed to the description of the protein content of a compartment specif...

Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) has emerged as a useful model system for studying traits unique to graminaceous species including bioenergy crop grasses owing to its amenability to laboratory experimentation and the availability of extensive genetic and germplasm resources. Considerable natural variation has been uncovered for a variety of traits including flowering time, vernalization r...

The partial purification and characterization of cell wall polysaccharides isolated from suspension-cultured Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) cells are described. Extraction of isolated cell walls with 1.0 m LiCl solubilized pectic polysaccharides with glycosyl-linkage compositions similar to those of rhamnogalacturonans I and II, pectic polysaccharides isolated from walls of suspension-cult...

The transference and reactivity of proanthocyanidins is an important issue that affects the technological processing of some fruits, such as grapes and apples. These processes are affected by proanthocyanidins bound to cell wall polysaccharides, which are present in high concentrations during the processing of the fruits. Therefore, the effective extraction of proanthocyanidins from fruits to t...

A detailed knowledge of cell wall heterogeneity and complexity is crucial for understanding plant growth and development. One key challenge is to establish links between polysaccharide-rich cell walls and their phenotypic characteristics. It is of particular interest for some plant material, like cotton fibers, which are of both biological and industrial importance. To this end, we attempted to...

l-Arabinose is one of the main constituents of cell wall polysaccharides such as pectic rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I), glucuronoarabinoxylans and other glycoproteins. It is found predominantly in the furanose form rather than in the thermodynamically more stable pyranose form. UDP-L-arabinofuranose (UDP-Araf), rather than UDP-L-arabinopyranose (UDP-Arap), is a sugar donor for the biosynthesis of ...

Plant cell wall polysaccharides can be used as the main feedstock for the production of biofuels. Saccharophagus degradans 2-40 is considered to be a potent system for the production of sugars from plant biomass due to its high capability to degrade many complex polysaccharides. To understand the degradation metabolism of plant cell wall polysaccharides by S. degradans, the cell growth, enzyme ...

Brachypodiumdistachyon is a suitable plant model for studying temperate cereal crops, such as wheat, barley or rice, and helpful in the study of the grain cell wall. Indeed, the most abundant hemicelluloses that are in the B. distachyon cell wall of grain are (1-3)(1-4)-β-glucans and arabinoxylans, in a ratio similar to those of cereals such as barley or oat. Conversely, these cell walls contai...