Research

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Sustainable food and energy supply to the world's growing population is one of the biggest challenges of this century. Plastic pollution harms the environment and sustainable, alternative options have to be developed.

The plant cell wall is a rich and renewable source of polysaccharides fed by sunlight, water and carbon dioxide from the air. Innovations to utilise this natural resource sustainably, based on our growing knowledge on plant cell walls composition, structure and assembly, will contribute to tackle these global challenges of our future.

The biosynthesis of cell wall polysaccharides involves the action of hundreds of different glycosyltransferases (GTs), the enzymes that catalyse the specific transfer of sugar moieties from activated nucleotide sugar donors to acceptor molecules, forming glycosidic bonds. Specific nucleotide-sugar transporters located in the Golgi membrane are also involved as suppliers of the monosaccharide. Over the years we have identified several glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of xylan, glucomannan and arabinogalactan and contributed greatly to our understanding of polysaccharide biosynthesis in the Golgi apparatus and detailed characterisation of polysaccharide structures. We mostly use a small flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, as a model system for a dicot plant, but our research extends to monocots (the other class of angiosperms) and gymnosperms. We continue our research into this key area, as plenty of enzymes and processes involved in cell wall biosynthesis remain unknown.

Polysaccharides synthesised in the Golgi apparatus are transported to the plasma membrane and secreted into the apoplast to form the cell wall. Cellulose, the most prevalent component of the plant cell wall, however, is synthesised by enzyme complexes in the plasma membrane and directly released into the apoplast. It is still largely unknown how secretion and synthesis are coordinated and how the different polysaccharides assemble and interact with each other and with additional cell wall components to create the molecular architecture of specific cell walls, e.g. the primary flexible cell wall or the secondary rigid and recalcitrant plant cell wall.

 Our research therefore aims to shed light on polysaccharide interaction in the plant cell wall and the understanding of underlying molecular mechanisms for plant cell wall assembly. Particularly important is the process of cellulose fibril assembly and its interaction with xylan and glucomannan. The structure of plant cellulose fibrils in poorly understood, and advances in this area will lead to major revisions in our understanding of cell wall strength and the properties of materials made from plants. Together with our collaborators, Dr Rosalie Cresswell, Professor Steven Brown and formerly Professor Ray Dupree, we employ solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) techniques to analyse polysaccharide structure and their interaction in the intact plant cell wall. This led to new discoveries showing that the pattern of acetylation of xylan is fundamental in determining the pattern of glucuronic acid addition to the backbone (Grantham et al., 2017). Defects in this pattern affect the overall conformation of the xylan chain, leading to loss of xylan cellulose interaction.

Funding

Our work would certainly not be possible without the generous financial support we received to fund our research, purchase equipment, and sponsor our postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, including from:

  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UKRI).
  • The Leverhulme Trust
  • The U.S. Department of Energy
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • Novonordisk Foundation

We also acknowledge the University and its Colleges for their support and grants, particularly for undergraduate project students.