Disentangling plant cell walls: the characterisation of dynamic polysaccharide interactions in the developing cell wall.

植物细胞壁围绕着植物细胞，提供结构支撑，这对于植物实现我们在自然界中看到的形式多样性至关重要。虽然细胞壁对植物生长和发育至关重要，但它们是极其复杂的结构，并且仍然需要了解细胞壁内特定的生物化学相互作用。越来越清楚的是，细胞壁的不同组分以比以前认为的更复杂和动态的方式相互作用，但这对植物功能的机械意义迄今为止尚不清楚。相对缺乏对细胞壁如何与整个植物生理学联系的机械理解意味着通过遗传修饰或育种来操纵细胞壁以改善植物性能的进展非常小，这仍然是一个高度未开发的领域。基于细胞壁的生物质越来越受到生物技术工业的关注，因为它旨在提供石油衍生化学品和材料的替代品。细胞壁材料可以被分解为单个多糖或糖组分，然后合成为各种聚合物和生物基塑料和纤维。越来越多的基于环境的消费者选择正在推动公司走向生物基，但由于与解构细胞壁相关的挑战，这些植物衍生产品中的许多尚未在商业上可行。细胞壁抗降解，研究表明，生物质的组成可能因环境扰动而变化很大，这使得预测生物质的组成具有挑战性。了解细胞壁如何对环境波动做出反应，以及这种改变的组成如何导致细胞壁内组分间相互作用的变化至关重要，不仅对于最大限度地发挥植物生物技术产业的潜力，而且对于预测作物对气候变化导致的日益多变的环境的反应也至关重要。该项目旨在使用一系列分子和生物化学技术来了解细胞壁对环境变化的动态响应。我将观察发育中细胞壁的组成和相互作用，并捕捉它们随时间的动态特性。该项目将解开这些细胞壁相互作用的遗传基础，并将其与整个植物生理学联系起来，以解决细胞壁生物化学和下游植物性能之间的知识差距。为了实现这些目标，我将使用一系列跨学科的技术来识别和生成一组细胞壁改变的植物。我将使用结合特定细胞壁成分的单克隆抗体筛选此面板，以确定细胞壁成分及其相互作用。我将使用植物生理学技术，如测量叶片内的气体交换，将生化细胞壁相互作用与整个植物生理学和最终植物性能联系起来。这项工作的结果将确定细胞壁相互作用和整个植物性能之间的新联系，并以前所未有的细节水平来描述细胞壁的发展。这将为将来转化为作物系统和次生细胞壁提供坚实的基础。

Plant cell walls surround plant cells, providing structural support which is crucial to allows plants to achieve the diversity of forms we see in nature. Although cell walls are crucial for plant growth and development, they are extremely complex structures and there remains a remarkable amount to learn about the specific biochemical interactions within cell walls. It is becoming increasingly clear that different components of the cell wall interact with each other in a much more complex and dynamic way than previously thought, but the mechanistic significance of this to plant function is thus far unknown. The relative lack of mechanistic understanding of how the cell wall links to whole plant physiology means that very little progress has been made towards manipulating the cell wall, either by genetic modification or by breeding to improve plant performance, and this remains a highly under-exploited area. Cell wall-based biomass is of increasing interest to the biotechnology industry as it aims to provide alternatives to petroleum derived chemicals and materials. Cell wall materials can be deconstructed to individual polysaccharides or component sugars and then synthesised into a wide array of polymers and bio-based plastics and fibres. Companies are being driven towards bio-based by increasingly environmental based consumer choices but as yet many of these plant derived products are not commercially viable due to the challenges associated with deconstructing the cell wall. The cell wall is resistant to degradation and studies have shown that composition can vary widely in response to environmental perturbations making it challenging to predict the composition of biomass. Understanding how cell walls respond to environmental fluctuations and how this altered composition leads to changes in the inter-component interactions within the cell wall is crucially important, not only for maximising the potential of plant-based biotech industries but also for predicting crop responses to the increasingly variable environments predicted due to climate change. This project aims to use a range of molecular and biochemical techniques to understand the dynamic responses of cell walls in response to environmental variations. I will characterise composition and interactions within the developing cell wall and capture their dynamic properties over time. The project will unpick the genetic basis of these cell wall interactions and relate them to whole plant physiology to address the knowledge gap between cell wall biochemistry and downstream plant performance. To achieve these aims I will use a range of cross disciplinary techniques to identify and generate a panel of plants with altered cell-walls. I will screen this panel using monoclonal antibodies which bind specific cell wall components to identify the cell wall composition and their interactions. I will use plant physiology techniques, such as measuring gaseous exchange within the leaves, to link biochemical cell wall interactions to whole plant physiology and ultimately plant performance. The results emerging from this work will identify novel links between cell wall interactions and whole plant performance and characterise developing cell walls in an unprecedented level of detail. This will provide a strong foundational basis for future translation into crop systems and secondary cell walls.