Editorial
Plants—of the botanical kind—are not often mentioned in ‘The State of the Union’ addresses by US Presidents, but when they are, it can have global impacts on plant biology research. In the 1990s, President Clinton ridiculed government support of research on ‘plant stress’ in one of his addresses, confusing psychological stress with the devastating effects of drought, salinity, and other environmental stresses on agricultural productivity. A decade later, President Bush mentioned the S word (switchgrass) in connection with alternatives to petroleum, thereby encouraging the US Department of Energy to invest heavily in research to understand plant cell walls and to develop efficient processes to harness the sun's energy, which is stored on a massive scale in plant cell walls.
This special issue of Molecular Plant is focused on the plant cell wall, whose complexity, diversity, and dynamic nature present formidable obstacles to a deep understanding of its structure and formation. We are delighted with the overwhelmingly positive response from the cell wall community around the globe to our invitations to present their latest results and thoughts in this new journal. We have four reviews, of which one presents an update of recent progress in the biosynthesis of matrix polysaccharides, a second reviews the significance of pectin methyl esterification in the life of the plant, a third focuses on the feruloylation of the arabinoxylans that are so important for grass cell walls, and the fourth review updates us on the mixed-linkage (1,3;1,4)-β-glucans that until recently were thought to be peculiar to grasses, but for which recent findings have called for a new perspective on their distribution and function.
This issue also contains 14 research articles on cell walls, presenting new insights into the biosynthesis, cross-linking, mechanics, interactions, functions, and evolution of specific wall polymers. The wall polymers include xyloglucans, xylans and arabinoxylans, homogalacturonan, arabinan, rhamnogalacturonan I and II, (1,3; 1,4) β-D-glucan, cellulose, and lignin—in short, most of the structural polymers that make up the cell wall. ‘Omics’ approaches are well represented in the form of wall proteomic and genomic insights into the genes that underlie wall polymer biosynthesis and their transcriptional co-regulation. These complement state-of-the-art biochemical, genetic, biomechanical, spectroscopic, microscopic, and antibody approaches for investigating wall structure and function. Numerous contributions take advantage of the vast genomic resources available for Arabidopsis, but poplar, barley, tomato, cell suspension cultures, and in vitro studies are also represented in the 14 research articles, and the sweep of discussion encompasses mosses to angiosperms, primary walls to secondary walls, small herbs to woody plants. Tissues range from poplar xylem and tomato fruit pericarp to Arabidopsis embryos, seed coats, hypocotyls, and leaf cells.
This set of articles presents a snapshot, a cross-section sampling the depth and diversity of cell wall research today—it is by no means comprehensive, but offers a taste of the variety, vitality, and complexity of research problems presented by the plant cell wall in its diverse forms. In the bigger picture, a thorough understanding of cell wall biology offers many rewards: a replacement for petroleum is one potential reward, but improvements in textiles, paper, building materials, biopolymers, and food quality are some of the other potential benefits that will accrue from a deeper knowledge of plant cell walls. We wish this new journal, Molecular Plant, great success in its inauguration and hope to see cell wall research well represented in its future ‘State of the Journal’ anniversaries.
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