Plant cell wall biosynthesis

We are interested in characterising the genes involved in the biosynthesis of cell wall components. Two particular focus areas are the cellulose synthase like (CSL) genes, and glycosyl transferases involved in arabinogalactan-protein (AGP) biosynthesis. Currently, the biosynthetic machinery involved in the synthesis of the glycan component of AGPs is poorly understood and one of our aims is to better understand the functions of the glycosyltransferases (GTs) involved in the synthesis of the complex type II arabinogalactan (AG) polysaccharides that are found as side chains on the AGP molecules. One aspect of our work is a bio-informatic approach to identify and systematically characterize the putative galactosyltransferases (GalTs) responsible for synthesizing the b(1,3)-Gal linkages in Arabidopsis (see also http://www.dsr.life.ku.dk/~jegelund)

 

 

Selected publications

Ellis M, Egelund J, Schultz C and Bacic A (2010) Arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs): Key regulators at the cell surface. Plant Physiology, submitted.

 

Egelund J, Damager I, Faber K, Olsen CE, Ulvskov P and Petersen BL (2008) Functional characterization of a novel member of the RhamnoGalacturonan specific XylosylTransferase gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana. FEBS letters 582: 3217-3222.

 

Bernal, A.J., Yoo, C-M., Mutwil, M., Jensen, J.K., Hou, G., Blaukopf, C., Sørensen, I., Blancaflor, E.B., Scheller H.V. and Willats, W.G.T. (2008) Functional Analysis of the Cellulose Synthase Like Genes ATCSLD1, ATCSLD2 and ATCSLD4 In Tip Growing Arabidopsis Cells. Plant Physiology, 148(3):1238-53.

 

Egelund J, Petersen BL, Motawia MS, Damager I, Faik A, Clausen H, Olsen CE, Ulvskov P and Geshi N (2006) Biosynthesis of pectic rhamnogalacturonan II: Molecular cloning and characterization of Golgi-localized a-xylosyltransferases encoded by the RGXT1 and RGXT2 genes of Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Cell 18: 2593-2607.