The seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana become encapsulated by a layer of mucilage when imbibed. This polysaccharide-rich hydrogel is constituted of two layers, an outer layer that can be easily extracted with water and an inner layer that must be examined in situ in order to study its properties and structure in a non-destructive manner or disintegrated through hydrolysis or physical means in order to analyze its constituents. Mucilage production is an adaptive trait and we have exploited 19 natural accessions previously found to have atypical and varied outer mucilage characteristics.
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