THE GENES INVOLVED IN (l,3;l,4)p-GLUCAN BIOSYNTHESIS IN CEREALS

摘要

The plant cell wall is a major determinant of plant structure and is fundamentally important in growth and development, resistance to pathogen invasion and abiotic stresses, quality of plant-based foods and in the properties of plant fibres and emerging biofuels. Thus, plant cell walls are crucial to plant growth and development and to human societies, where they are used in a broad range of agro-industrial processes. Understanding the biosynthesis of cell wall polysaccharides, the major components of walls, has attracted considerable interest in light of these factors. The walls of grasses, which include members of the Poaceae and the commercially important cereals, have a number of characteristic features, most notably the presence of a major matrix phase polysaccharide, the (l,3;l,4)-|3-D-glucan, that is not found in walls of other monocots or in most dicots.