探花直播 of Cambridge - plant cell wall

Cellulose: new understanding could lead to tailored biofuels

fpjl2 — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 09:38:08 +0000

Scientists have identified new steps in the way plants produce cellulose, the component of plant cell walls that provides strength, and forms insoluble fibre in the human diet.

探花直播findings could lead to improved production of cellulose and guide plant breeding for specific uses such as wood products and ethanol fuel, which are sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based products.

Published in the journal Nature Communications today, the work was conducted by an international team of scientists, led by the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the 探花直播 of Melbourne.

"Our research identified several proteins that are essential in the assembly of the protein machinery that makes cellulose,"聽said Melbourne's Prof Staffan Persson.

鈥淲e found that these assembly factors control how much cellulose is made, and so plants without them can not produce cellulose very well and the defect substantially impairs plant biomass production.聽探花直播ultimate aim of this research would be breed plants that have altered activity of these proteins so that cellulose production can be improved for the range of applications that use cellulose including paper, timber and ethanol fuels."

探花直播newly discovered proteins are located in an intracellular compartment called the Golgi where proteins are sorted and modified.

鈥淚f the function of this protein family is abolished the cellulose synthesizing complexes become stuck in the Golgi and have problems reaching the cell surface where they normally are active鈥� said the lead authors of the study, Drs. Yi Zhang (Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology) and Nino Nikolovski ( 探花直播 of Cambridge).

鈥淲e therefore named the new proteins STELLO, which is Greek for to set in place, and deliver.鈥�

鈥� 探花直播findings are important to understand how plants produce their biomass,鈥澛爏aid Professor Paul Dupree from the 探花直播 of Cambridge's Department of Biochemistry.

聽鈥淕reenhouse-gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol, which is derived from the biomass of plants, are estimated to be roughly 85 percent less than from fossil fuel sources. Research to understand cellulose production in plants is therefore an important part of climate change mitigation.鈥�

鈥淚n addition, by using cellulosic plant materials we get around the problem of food-versus-fuel scenario that is problematic when using corn as a basis for bioethanol.鈥�

鈥淚t is therefore of great importance to find genes and mechanisms that can improve cellulose production in plants so that we can tailor cellulose production for various needs.鈥�

Previous studies by Profs. Persson鈥檚 and Dupree鈥檚 research groups have, together with other scientists, identified many proteins that are important for cellulose synthesis and for other cell wall polymers.

With the newly presented research they substantially increase our understanding for how the bulk of a plant鈥檚 biomass is produced and is therefore of vast importance to industrial applications.

探花直播work was funded, in part, by the BBSRC and was conducted with the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre Cell Wall Sugars Programme.

Adapted from a 探花直播 of Melbourne press release.聽

In the search for low emission plant-based fuels, new research may help avoid having to choose between growing crops for food or fuel.

By using cellulosic plant materials we get around the problem of food-versus-fuel scenario that is problematic when using corn as a basis for bioethanol

Paul Dupree

Nino Nikolovski and Paul Dupree

Arabidopsis seeds exude slime that is attached to the seed by cellulose. On the left is a seed with normal slime stained pink, but on the right, in the stello mutant, the slime is lost because the cellulose is missing.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Cells cling and spiral 鈥榣ike vines鈥� in first 3D tissue scaffold for plants

fpjl2 — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 16:53:41 +0000

Miniscule artificial scaffolding units made from nano-fibre polymers and built to house plant cells have enabled scientists to see for the first time how individual plant cells behave and interact with each other in a three-dimensional environment. 聽聽聽聽

These 鈥渉otels for cells鈥� mimic the 鈥榚xtracellular matrix鈥� which cells secrete before they grow and divide to create plant tissue. This environment allows scientists to observe and image individual plant cells developing in a more natural, multi-dimensional environment than previous 鈥榝lat鈥� cell cultures.

探花直播research team were surprised to see individual plant cells clinging to and winding around their fibrous supports; reaching past neighbouring cells to wrap themselves to the artificial scaffolding in a manner reminiscent of vines growing.

Pioneering new in vitro techniques combining recent developments in 3-D scaffold development and imaging, scientists say they observed plants cells taking on growth and structure of far greater complexity than has ever been seen of plant cells before, either in living tissue or cell culture.聽聽聽聽聽

鈥淧reviously, plant cells in culture had only been seen in round or oblong forms. Now, we have seen 3D cultured cells twisting and weaving around their new supports in truly remarkable ways, creating shapes we never thought possible and never seen before in any plant,鈥� said plant scientist and co-author Raymond Wightman.

"We can use this tool to explore how a whole plant is formed and at the same time to create new materials.鈥�

This ability for single plant cells to attach themselves by growing and spiralling around the scaffolding suggests that cells of land plants have retained the ability of their evolutionary ancestors 鈥� aquatic single-celled organisms, such as Charophyta algae 鈥� to stick themselves to inert structures.

While similar 鈥榥ano-scaffold鈥� technology has long been used for mammalian cells, resulting in the advancement of tissue engineering research, this is the first time such technology has been used for plant cells 鈥� allowing scientists to glimpse in 3-D the individual cell interactions that lead to the forming of plant tissue.

探花直播scientists say the research 鈥渄efines a new suite of techniques鈥� for exploring cell-environment interactions, allowing greater understating of fundamental plant biology that could lead to new types of biomaterials and help provide solutions to sustainable biomass growth.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

探花直播research, conducted by a team of scientists from Cambridge 探花直播鈥檚 Sainsbury Laboratory and Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, is published today in the open access journal BMC Plant Biology.

鈥淲hile we can peer deep inside single cells and understand their functions, when researchers study a 鈥榳hole鈥� plant, as in fully formed tissue, it is too difficult to disentangle the many complex interactions between the cells, their neighbours and their behaviour,鈥� said Wightman.

鈥淯ntil now, nobody had tried to put plant cells in an artificial fibre scaffold that replicates their natural environment and tried to observe their interactions with one or two other cells, or fibre itself,鈥� he said.

Co-author and material scientist Dr Stoyan Smoukov suggests that a possible reason why artificial scaffolding on plant cells had never been done before was the expense of 3D nano-fibre matrices (the high costs have previously been justified in mammalian cell research due to its human medical potential).

However, Smoukov has co-discovered and recently helped commercialise a new method for producing polymer fibres for 3-D scaffolds inexpensively and in bulk. 鈥楽hear-spinning鈥� produces masses of fibre, in a technique similar to creating candy-floss in nano-scale. 探花直播researchers were able to adapt such scaffolds for use with plant cells.聽聽聽聽聽聽

This approach was combined with electron microscopy imaging technology. In fact, using time-lapse photography, the researchers have even managed to capture 4-D footage of these previously unseen cellular structures. 鈥淪uch high-resolution moving images allowed us to follow internal processes in the cells as they develop into tissues,鈥� said Smoukov, who is already working on using the methods in this plant study to research mammalian cancer cells. 聽聽

New cost-effective material which mimics natural 鈥榚xtracellular matrix鈥� has allowed scientists to capture previously unseen behaviour in individual plant cells, including new shapes and interactions. New methods highlight potential developments for plant tissue engineering.

Until now, nobody had tried to put plant cells in an artificial fibre scaffold that replicates their natural environment

Raymond Wightman

Luo et al

Plant cells twisting and weaving in 3-D cultures

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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