Genetic dissection of the cellulose synthesis in plants: the role of POM1
Abstract
The plant cell wall is a complex structure primarily composed out of polysaccharides. Plant cell walls are of immense agronomic importance since they determine shape and size of cells, organs and the whole plant. In addition, cell wall composition and architecture determines textural properties of fruits and vegetables and physicochemical properties of plant fibres (paper and textile). Finally, multiple herbicides have targets that are directly involved in cell wall synthesis. Despite its importance very little is known about the processes involved in the synthesis and assembly of plant cell walls. The two laboratories use molecular genetic approaches in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to dissect cell wall synthesis and assembly during plant growth. In this framework, a large collection of mutants with defects in the synthesis of cellulose, a major cell wall component, has been isolated. Recently, the Vienna lab has isolated a novel gene (POMPOM1 or POM1), identified by a large series of allelic mutations causing a cellulose deficiency in growing cell walls. Surprisingly, POM1 encodes a putative chitinase. In principle, substrates for chitinases are polymers of acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc). These sugars are found in chitin, which is not produced in plants, glycans on glycoproteins, Arabinogalactan proteins and signalling molecules related to NOD factors produced by the symbiontic bacterium Rhizobium. The relationship between a putative chitinase and the synthesis of cellulose therefore remains for the moment extremely mysterious. In the framework of this collaboration, we propose to study in detail the role of the POM1 gene product in the synthesis of cellulose.
Publikationen
POM2 impairs arrangement of the cytoskeleton and cell all deposition.
Autoren: Bringmann M, Persson S, Li E, Hauser M-T Jahr: 2009
Conference & Workshop proceedings, paper, abstract
The Plant Glycosyl-transferase 64 (GT64) family: in search of a function. Plant Polysaccharides
Autoren: Edvardsson E, Singh SK, Yun M-S, Mansfeld A, M-T Hauser, Marchant A Jahr: 2010
Chapter in collected volumes
Project staff
Marie-Theres Hauser
Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Marie-Theres Hauser
marie-theres.hauser@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-94240
Project Leader
01.01.2003 - 31.01.2004
BOKU partners
External partners
INRA- Laboratory of Cellbiology
none
partner