Cellulose synthesis: mutational analysis and genomic perspectives using Arabidopsis thaliana |
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Authors: | RE Williamson JE Burn CH Hocart |
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Institution: | (1) Plant Cell Biology Group, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra, ACT 2601 (Australia), Fax +61 2 6125 4331, e-mail: richard@rsbs.anu.edu.au, AU |
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Abstract: | Cellulose microfibrils containing crystalline β-1,4-glucan provide the major structural framework in higher-plant cell walls. Genetic analyses of Arabidopsis thaliana now link specific genes to plant cellulose production just as was achieved some years earlier with bacteria. Cellulose-deficient
mutants have defects in several members of one family within a complex glycosyltransferase superfamily and in one member of
a small family of membrane-bound endo-1,4-β-glucanases. The mutants also accumulate a readily extractable β-1,4-glucan that has short chains which, in at least one case, are lipid linked. Cellulose could be made by direct extension
of the glucan chain by the glycosyltransferase or, as the mutant suggests, by an indirect route which makes lipid-linked oligosaccharides.
Models discussed incorporate the known enzymes and lipo-glucan and raise the possibility that different CesA glycosyltransferases
may catalyse different steps.
Received 5 January 2001; received after revision 25 April 2001; accepted 25 April 2001 |
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Keywords: | , Cellulose synthesis, Mutants, Arabidopsis thaliana, Glycosyltransferase, Endo-1,4-β,-glucanase, Lipo-glucan, |
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