Study offers insight into biochemical balance required for plant growth

R&D
Monday, January 16, 2012

In an ongoing effort to understand how modifying plant cell walls might affect the production of biomass and its breakdown for use in biofuels, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered a delicate biochemical balance essential for sustainable plant growth and reproduction. Their research on pectin, a sugary component of plant cell walls commonly used as a gelling and stabilizing agent in foods, might also suggest new ways to improve its properties for industrial and food applications.

The research findings appear online in The Plant Cell.

"Pectin is the most structurally complex polysaccharide (sugar) component of plant cell walls, and is mainly associated with cell walls that form in fast-growing tissues that are important for plant growth and development," said Brookhaven biologist Chang-Jun (C.J.) Liu, lead author of the paper. "Our aim was to understand how small molecules, such as acetyl esters, that commonly bind to the sugar backbone affect pectin’s structure and its biological and biophysical properties."

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