Cell wall hydrolases act in concert during aerenchyma development in sugarcane roots.

Background And Aims: Cell wall disassembly occurs naturally in plants by the action of several glycosyl-hydrolases during different developmental processes such as lysigenous and constitutive aerenchyma formation in sugarcane roots. Wall degradation has been reported in aerenchyma development in different species, but little is known about the action of glycosyl-hydrolases in this process.

Methods: In this work, gene expression, protein levels and enzymatic activity of cell wall hydrolases were assessed.

Corrigendum: Pectins, Endopolygalacturonases, and Bioenergy.

[This corrects the article on p. 1401 in vol. 7, PMID: 27703463.

Pectins, Endopolygalacturonases, and Bioenergy.

The precise disassembly of the extracellular matrix of some plant species used as feedstocks for bioenergy production continues to be a major barrier to reach reasonable cost effective bioethanol production. One solution has been the use of pretreatments, which can be effective, but increase even more the cost of processing and also lead to loss of cell wall materials that could otherwise be used in industry. Although pectins are known to account for a relatively low proportion of walls of grasses, their role in recalcitrance to hydrolysis has been shown to be important.

Co-expression network analysis reveals transcription factors associated to cell wall biosynthesis in sugarcane.

Sugarcane is a hybrid of Saccharum officinarum and Saccharum spontaneum, with minor contributions from other species in Saccharum and other genera. Understanding the molecular basis of cell wall metabolism in sugarcane may allow for rational changes in fiber quality and content when designing new energy crops. This work describes a comparative expression profiling of sugarcane ancestral genotypes: S.