Evolution of the cell wall gene families of grasses

Authors: Penning, Bryan; MCCANN, MAUREEN - Purdue University; CARPITA, NICHOLAS - Purdue University

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/29/2019
Publication Date: 10/4/2019
Citation: Penning, B., McCann, M.C., Carpita, N.C. 2019. Evolution of the cell wall gene families of grasses. Frontiers in Plant Science. 10:1205. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01205.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01205

Interpretive Summary: Grass species such as corn, rice and wheat provide the bulk of calories consumed world-wide as well as the raw material for other bioproducts. They also have distinct cell walls (Type II) from other plants such as Arabidopsis (Type I) that can impact food end-quality and conversion efficiency to bioproducts. However, all plants have most of the genes necessary to produce either type of cell wall. This research found that not only are most cell wall genes to make both Type I and Type II walls present in the Type I model plant Arabidopsis and the Type II model plant Maize, but that many of those genes are also expressed in both model plants. Functions of this large set of gene families (>1500) responsible for making and maintaining cell walls are identified and their relative expression in the model grass, maize, and the model dicot, Arabidopsis, are observed. Potential reasons including influence by the Golgi apparatus are identified to explain physical differences in cell wall types despite retention and expression of nearly a full complement of all cell wall genes in these different plants. A better understanding of what genes are present, expressed, utilized, and what function they perform provided by this study can be used to modify plant cell walls in grasses that lead to improvement of end-use food quality and bioproducts.

Technical Abstract: Grass species such as corn, rice and wheat provide the bulk of calories consumed world-wide as well as the raw material for other bioproducts. They also have distinct cell walls (Type II) from other plants such as Arabidopsis (Type I) that can impact food end-quality and conversion efficiency to bioproducts. However, all plants have most of the genes necessary to produce either type of cell wall. This research found that not only are most cell wall genes to make both Type I and Type II walls present in the Type I model plant Arabidopsis and the Type II model plant Maize, but that many of those genes are also expressed in both model plants. Functions of this large set of gene families (>1500) responsible for making and maintaining cell walls are identified and their relative expression in the model grass, maize, and the model dicot, Arabidopsis, are observed. Potential reasons including influence by the Golgi apparatus are identified to explain physical differences in cell wall types despite retention and expression of nearly a full complement of all cell wall genes in these different plants. A better understanding of what genes are present, expressed, utilized, and what function they perform provided by this study can be used to modify plant cell walls in grasses that lead to improvement of end-use food quality and bioproducts.