title: Xylan decoration patterns and the plant secondary cell wall molecular architecture.
abstract: The molecular architecture of plant secondary cell walls is still not resolved. There are several proposed structures for cellulose fibrils, the main component of plant cell walls and the conformation of other molecules is even less well known. Glucuronic acid (GlcA) substitution of xylan (GUX) enzymes, in CAZy family glycosyl transferase (GT)8, decorate the xylan backbone with various specific patterns of GlcA. It was recently discovered that dicot xylan has a domain with the side chain decorations distributed on every second unit of the backbone (xylose). If the xylan backbone folds in a similar way to glucan chains in cellulose (2-fold helix), this kind of arrangement may allow the undecorated side of the xylan chain to hydrogen bond with the hydrophilic surface of cellulose microfibrils. MD simulations suggest that such interactions are energetically stable. We discuss the possible role of this xylan decoration pattern in building of the plant cell wall.
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Leverhulme Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, U.K.
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Busse-Wicher
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Leverhulme Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, U.K.
authors: Nicholas J
authors: NJ
authors: Grantham
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Leverhulme Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, U.K.
authors: Jan J
authors: JJ
authors: Lyczakowski
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Leverhulme Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, U.K.
authors: Nino
authors: N
authors: Nikolovski
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Leverhulme Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QW, U.K. p.dupree@bioc.cam.ac.uk.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Dupree
mesh_terms: D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*; D014990:Xylans / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014990:Xylans; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: cell wall; cellulose; decoration pattern; docking; molecular architecture; xylan