scholarly journals Cell wall composition determines handedness reversal in helicoidal cellulose architectures of Pollia condensata fruits

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (51) ◽  
pp. e2111723118
Author(s):  
Yin Chang ◽  
Rox Middleton ◽  
Yu Ogawa ◽  
Tom Gregory ◽  
Lisa M. Steiner ◽  
...  

Chiral asymmetry is important in a wide variety of disciplines and occurs across length scales. While several natural chiral biomolecules exist only with single handedness, they can produce complex hierarchical structures with opposite chiralities. Understanding how the handedness is transferred from molecular to the macroscopic scales is far from trivial. An intriguing example is the transfer of the handedness of helicoidal organizations of cellulose microfibrils in plant cell walls. These cellulose helicoids produce structural colors if their dimension is comparable to the wavelength of visible light. All previously reported examples of a helicoidal structure in plants are left-handed except, remarkably, in the Pollia condensata fruit; both left- and right-handed helicoidal cell walls are found in neighboring cells of the same tissue. By simultaneously studying optical and mechanical responses of cells with different handednesses, we propose that the chirality of helicoids results from differences in cell wall composition. In detail, here we showed statistical substantiation of three different observations: 1) light reflected from right-handed cells is red shifted compared to light reflected from left-handed cells, 2) right-handed cells occur more rarely than left-handed ones, and 3) right-handed cells are located mainly in regions corresponding to interlocular divisions. Finally, 4) right-handed cells have an average lower elastic modulus compared to left-handed cells of the same color. Our findings, combined with mechanical simulation, suggest that the different chiralities of helicoids in the cell wall may result from different chemical composition, which strengthens previous hypotheses that hemicellulose might mediate the rotations of cellulose microfibrils.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Chase ◽  
Olga Zhaxybayeva ◽  
Jorge Rocha ◽  
Daniel J. Cosgrove ◽  
Lori R. Shapiro

AbstractPlants must rearrange the network of complex carbohydrates in their cell walls during normal growth and development. To accomplish this, all plants depend on proteins called expansins that non-enzymatically loosen hydrogen bonds between cellulose microfibrils. Because of their key role in cell wall extension during growth, expansin genes are ubiquitous, diverse, and abundant throughout all land plants. Surprisingly, expansin genes have more recently been found in some bacteria and microbial eukaryotes, where their biological functions are largely unknown. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeny of microbial expansin genes. We find these genes in all eukaryotic microorganisms that have structural cellulose in their cell walls, suggesting expansins evolved in ancient marine microorganisms long before the evolution of land plants. We also find expansins in an unexpectedly high phylogenetic diversity of bacteria and fungi that do not have cellulosic cell walls. These bacteria and fungi with expansin genes inhabit varied ecological contexts mirroring the diversity of terrestrial and aquatic niches where plant and/or algal cellulosic cell walls are present. The microbial expansin phylogeny shows evidence of multiple horizontal gene transfer events within and between bacterial and eukaryotic microbial lineages, which may in part underlie their unusually broad phylogenetic distribution. Taken together, we find expansins to be unexpectedly widespread in both bacterial and eukaryotic genetic backgrounds, and that the contribution of these genes to bacterial and fungal ecological interactions with plants and algae has likely been underappreciated.ImportanceCellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth. In plant cell walls, where most global cellulose biomass is found, cellulose microfibrils occur intertwined with hemicelluloses and pectins. The rigidity of this polysaccharide matrix provides plant cell walls with structural support, but this rigidity also restricts cellular growth and development. Irreversible, non-enzymatic loosening of structural carbohydrates by expansin proteins is key to successful cell wall growth in plants and green algae. Here, we find that expansin genes are distributed far more broadly throughout diverse bacterial and fungal lineages lacking cellulosic cell walls than previously known. Multiple horizontal gene transfer events are in part responsible for their unusually wide phylogenetic distribution. Together, these results suggest that in addition to being the key evolutionary innovation by which eukaryotes remodel structural cellulose in their cell walls, expansins likely have remarkably broad and under-recognized utility for microbial species that interact with plant and algal structural cellulose in diverse ecological contexts.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Ida Szmigiel ◽  
Dorota Kwiatkowska ◽  
Marcin Łukaszewicz ◽  
Anna Krasowska

Hemicellulose is the second most abundant plant heterogenous biopolymer. Among products obtained from a wide range of agro-residues, biosurfactants, e.g., surfactin (SU), are gaining increasing interest. Our previous studies have shown that a Bacillus subtilis strain can successfully produce a significant amount of SU using a rapeseed cake. This work aimed to investigate plant hemicellulose components as substrates promoting SU’s efficient production by B. subtilis 87Y. Analyses of SU production, enzymatic activity and cell wall composition of hulled oat caryopses suggest that the main ingredients of plant hemicellulose, in particular xylan and its derivatives, may be responsible for an increased biosurfactant yield.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1263
Author(s):  
David Stuart Thompson ◽  
Azharul Islam

The extensibility of synthetic polymers is routinely modulated by the addition of lower molecular weight spacing molecules known as plasticizers, and there is some evidence that water may have similar effects on plant cell walls. Furthermore, it appears that changes in wall hydration could affect wall behavior to a degree that seems likely to have physiological consequences at water potentials that many plants would experience under field conditions. Osmotica large enough to be excluded from plant cell walls and bacterial cellulose composites with other cell wall polysaccharides were used to alter their water content and to demonstrate that the relationship between water potential and degree of hydration of these materials is affected by their composition. Additionally, it was found that expansins facilitate rehydration of bacterial cellulose and cellulose composites and cause swelling of plant cell wall fragments in suspension and that these responses are also affected by polysaccharide composition. Given these observations, it seems probable that plant environmental responses include measures to regulate cell wall water content or mitigate the consequences of changes in wall hydration and that it may be possible to exploit such mechanisms to improve crop resilience.


1974 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 2033-2036 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. C. Lyon ◽  
W. C. Mueller

Leaf tissue of Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Plantago major L. was prepared by the freeze-etch technique and examined in the electron microscope for the presence of ectodesmata. No structures analagous to ectodesmata observed with light microscopy could be found in freeze-etched preparations of chemically unfixed material or in material fixed only in glutaraldehyde. Objects appearing as broad, shallow, granular areas in the epidermal cell wall beneath the cuticle were observed in leaf replicas after fixation in complete sublimate fixative, the acid components of the sublimate fixative, or mercuric chloride alone. Because of their distribution and location, these objects can be considered analagous to ectodesmata observed by light microscopists. Because these areas occur only in chemically fixed walls and are localized within the walls in discrete areas, their presence supports the contention that ectodesmata are sites in the outer cell wall with defined physicochemical characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huimin Xu ◽  
Yuanyuan Zhao ◽  
Yuanzhen Suo ◽  
Yayu Guo ◽  
Yi Man ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Cell wall imaging can considerably permit direct visualization of the molecular architecture of cell walls and provide the detailed chemical information on wall polymers, which is imperative to better exploit and use the biomass polymers; however, detailed imaging and quantifying of the native composition and architecture in the cell wall remains challenging.Results: Here, we describe a label-free imaging technology, coherent Raman scattering microscopy (CRS), including coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, which images the major structures and chemical composition of plant cell walls. The major steps of the procedure are demonstrated, including sample preparation, setting the mapping parameters, analysis of spectral data, and image generation. Applying this rapid approach, which will help researchers understand the highly heterogeneous structures and organization of plant cell walls.Conclusions: This method can potentially be incorporated into label-free microanalyses of plant cell wall chemical composition based on the in situ vibrations of molecules.


Author(s):  
WILLIAM S. YORK ◽  
ALAN G. DARVILL ◽  
MICHAEL MCNEIL ◽  
THOMAS T. STEVENSON ◽  
PETER ALBERSHEIM

Author(s):  
William S. York ◽  
Alan G. Darvill ◽  
Michael McNeil ◽  
Thomas T. Stevenson ◽  
Peter Albersheim

2011 ◽  
Vol 1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Cerclier ◽  
C. Moreau ◽  
A. Guyomard-Lack ◽  
E. Bonnin ◽  
H. Bizot ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTStructural colors were obtained by the deposition of plant cell walls biopolymers films on reflective support. Multilayered xyloglucan(XG)/cellulose nanocrystals(CN) thin films were obtained by spin-assisted layer-by-layer assembly while arabinoxylan (AX) thin films were elaborated via the spin-coating of AX/melamine formaldehyde resin followed by a cross-linking step. The effects of aqueous solutions on the stability of the structural colors were evaluated. The films were subsequently used to detect cellulase and xylanase activities by the change in the colors due to the film degradation. This enzymatic assay method appeared to be about 150 more sensitive that a standard method. Moreover due its simplicity, the method could be used to detect other biomass-hydrolyzing enzymes and more generally for other heterocatalytic degradations of solid polymer layers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 2946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Han ◽  
Li-Jun Huang ◽  
Dan Feng ◽  
Wenhan Jiang ◽  
Wenzhuo Miu ◽  
...  

Plant cells are separated by cellulose cell walls that impede direct cell-to-cell contact. In order to facilitate intercellular communication, plant cells develop unique cell-wall-spanning structures termed plasmodesmata (PD). PD are membranous channels that link the cytoplasm, plasma membranes, and endoplasmic reticulum of adjacent cells to provide cytoplasmic and membrane continuity for molecular trafficking. PD play important roles for the development and physiology of all plants. The structure and function of PD in the plant cell walls are highly dynamic and tightly regulated. Despite their importance, plasmodesmata are among the few plant cell organelles that remain poorly understood. The molecular properties of PD seem largely elusive or speculative. In this review, we firstly describe the general PD structure and its protein composition. We then discuss the recent progress in identification and characterization of PD-associated plant cell-wall proteins that regulate PD function, with particular emphasis on callose metabolizing and binding proteins, and protein kinases targeted to and around PD.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document