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of arabinoxylans is regulated?; and whether feruloylation happens primarily
in the Golgi apparatus as previously proposed (reviewed in
Buanafina et al.,
2010
)? It is evident that key information regarding grass cell lignification
remains elusive (i.e., a specific TAL activity), indicating that the need remains
for continued fundamental research in this area of plant biology. Perhaps,
future studies using other model plants, particularly B. distachyon,with
simple genome structure and easy handling growth conditions can be used
to address these and other unanswered questions.
Comparison of species within the family of grasses has revealed that our
understanding of the cell wall variability between plants with a C3 photosyn-
thetic (i.e. rice, wheat, barley, oat, Brachypodium) and C4 photosynthetic
(i.e. miscanthus, switchgrass, maize, sorghum, foxtail millet) is limited. Spe-
cifically in regards to lignification, it is well accepted that C4 grasses, which
have a different stem structure and a different photosynthetic metabolism,
have more hydroxycinnamic acids: in their lignified cell walls, than C3
grasses which would suggest that some molecular steps/regulations may be
different in these organisms than their C3 counterparts. The use of gene
expression networks as demonstrated above is an unexplored avenue allow-
ing researchers to decipher molecular biology of lignification in grasses. This
method may also help to identify gene candidate for association mapping
studies and to design new transgenic plants.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Pr. Catherine Lapierre and Dr. Lise Jouanin
for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was partly funded
by the European projects CELLWALL and RENEWALL. Support for
M. Harrington was provided by the National Science Foundation IRFP
OISE #1002683.
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