Publications

The objective of our research was to use the flexibility of the cell wall to its extremes by modifying its composition while avoiding deleterious effects on plant physiology. One of the strategies to achieve this is the heterologous expression of genes coding for cell wall degrading (CWD) enzymes in plants. These can alter the cell wall structure during plant growth and might improve saccharification yield of the lignocellulosic biomass. In this ...

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Plant cell wall suspensions are widely present in daily food, such as soups, dressings, and sauces. Cell walls of edible plants are made up of an intricate biopolymer network of mainly cellulose microfibrils, pectins, and hemicelluloses. The current study aims to obtain a better insight in cell wall biopolymer interactions and their relation to physical functionalities of cell wall suspensions. ...

The cell wall is an essential structural component of the fruit cell. It is also an important barrier for water exchange between the intercellular space and the cytoplasm and as such affects moisture loss of fruit during commercial storage. In this manuscript the nanostructure and water exchange properties of different artificially produced cell walls were investigated. Three artificial cell walls, bacterial cellulose (BC), bacterial cellulose ...

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Cell wall related polysaccharides of the red microalga Porphyridium sp. were shown to be a promising source of new sustainable thickening agents. Isolated extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) consisted of high molecular weight polymers, showing a higher intrinsic viscosity compared to several commercially used hydrocolloids. Aqueous solutions of EPS (2% w/w) were characterized by substantial viscosities and weak gel behavior. ...

Lignin engineering is a promising tool to reduce the energy input and the need of chemical pre-treatments for the efficient conversion of plant biomass into fermentable sugars for downstream applications. At the same time, lignin engineering can offer new insight into the structure-function relationships of plant cell walls by combined mechanical, structural and chemical analyses. Here, this comprehensive approach was applied to poplar trees ...

Growth and biomechanics of etiolated hypocotyls from Arabidopsis thaliana lines overexpressing xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase AtXTH18, AtXTH19, AtXTH20, and PttXET16-34 were studied. Overexpression of AtXTH18, AtXTH19, and AtXTH20 stimulated growth of hypocotyls, while PttXET16-34 overexpression did not show this effect. In vitro extension of frozen/thawed hypocotyls measured by a constant-load extensiometer started from a ...

The presence of cell walls entrapping starch granules in common bean cotyledons, prevailing after thermal processing and mechanical disintegration, has been identified as the main reason for their (s)low in vitro starch digestibility. Nevertheless, it is unknown if the role of cell walls on starch digestion changes as processing conditions (e.g. time) are modified. In this study it was hypothesised that cell wall permeability would be ...

During chloride salinity, the pH of the leaf apoplast (pHapo) transiently alkalizes. There is an ongoing debate about the physiological relevance of these stress-induced pHapo changes. Using proteomic analyses of expanding leaves of corn (Zea mays L.), we show that this transition in pHapo conveys functionality by (i) adjusting protein abundances and (ii) affecting the rheological properties of the cell wall. pHapo was monitored in planta via ...