Suppression of CINNAMOYL-CoA REDUCTASE increases the level of monolignol ferulates incorporated into maize lignins.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The cell wall polymer lignin provides structural support and rigidity to plant cell walls, and therefore to the plant body. However, the recalcitrance associated with lignin impedes the extraction of polysaccharides from the cell wall to make plant-based biofuels and biomaterials. The cell wall digestibility can be improved by introducing labile ester bonds into the lignin backbone that can be easily broken under mild base treatment at room temperature. The FERULOYL-CoA MONOLIGNOL TRANSFERASE (FMT) enzyme, which may be naturally found in many plants, uses feruloyl-CoA and monolignols to synthesize the ester-linked monolignol ferulate conjugates. A mutation in the first lignin-specific biosynthetic enzyme, CINNAMOYL-CoA REDUCTASE (CCR), results in an increase in the intra

SUBMITTER: Smith RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5414125 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature