Cell wall biosynthesis

The plant cell wall is the most abundant form of biomass on Earth. Increasing global awareness of the need for alternative energies that can reduce our dependence on fossil fuel has greatly elevated our interests in the plant cell wall and its research.

 

The whole genome sequence of the model plant Arabidopsis has illuminated the involvement of hundreds of genes in the cell wall biosynthesis, yet we have little idea about how the corresponding proteins function and are regulated in the cellular context.

 

One of the goals of our research is to understand the molecular mechanism of plant cell wall biosynthesis, with the utmost focus on subcellular localizations of and interactions among proteins and enzymes and their catalytic activities that are responsible for the process.

The biosynthesis of the cell wall glycoconjugants (pectin and hemicellulose) occurs in the subcellular compartment known as the Golgi apparatus. We employ heterologous expression system based on the tobacco Nicotiana benthamiana for expression of various plant genes with or without tags (e.g. affinity tags, fluorescent protein tags).

 

Bioimaging of living plant leaf tissue is carried out for understanding the mechanism of the Golgi targeting of these enzymes as well as that of the protein complex formation.

 

Collaborators:

Dr. Debra Mohnen (Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, USA)

Dr. Henrik Vibe Scheller (Joint Bioenergy Institute, California, USA)