Skip Navigation


Molecular Plant Advance Access originally published online on August 20, 2009
Molecular Plant 2009 2(5):904-909; doi:10.1093/mp/ssp060
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
2/5/904    most recent
ssp060v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kaida, R.
Right arrow Articles by Hayashi, T.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPP and IPPE, SIBS, CAS.

Loosening Xyloglucan Accelerates the Enzymatic Degradation of Cellulose in Wood

Rumi Kaidaa, Tomomi Kakua, Kei'ichi Babaa, Masafumi Oyadomaria, Takashi Watanabea, Koji Nishidab, Toshiji Kanayab, Ziv Shanic, Oded Shoseyovc and Takahisa Hayashia,d,1

a Kyoto University, RISH, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
b Kyoto University, Institute for Chemical Research, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
c CBD Technologies, Rehovot 76100, Israel
d Institute of Sustainability Science, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed at address a. E-mail taka{at}rish.kyoto-u.ac.jp, fax and tel. +81 774 38 3618.

In order to create trees in which cellulose, the most abundant component in biomass, can be enzymatically hydrolyzed highly for the production of bioethanol, we examined the saccharification of xylem from several transgenic poplars, each overexpressing either xyloglucanase, cellulase, xylanase, or galactanase. The level of cellulose degradation achieved by a cellulase preparation was markedly greater in the xylem overexpressing xyloglucanase and much greater in the xylems overexpressing xylanase and cellulase than in the xylem of the wild-type plant. Although a high degree of degradation occurred in all xylems at all loci, the crystalline region of the cellulose microfibrils was highly degraded in the xylem overexpressing xyloglucanase. Since the complex between microfibrils and xyloglucans could be one region that is particularly resistant to cellulose degradation, loosening xyloglucan could facilitate the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose in wood.

Key Words: Overexpression of xyloglucanase • saccharification • transgenic poplar • xylem


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.