Titel Deelnemers "Korte inhoud" "Hydroxycinnamaldehyde-derived benzofuran components in lignins" "Koichi Yoshioka, Hoon Kim, Fachuang Lu, Nette De Ridder, Ruben Vanholme, Shinya Kajita, Wout Boerjan, John Ralph" "Lignin is an abundant polymer in plant secondary cell walls. Prototypical lignin derives from the polymerization of monolignols (hydroxycinnamyl alcohols), mainly coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol, via combinatorial radical coupling reactions, and primarily via the endwise coupling of a monomer with the phenolic end of the growing polymer. Hydroxycinnamaldehyde units have long been recognized as minor components of lignins. In plants deficient in cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase, the last enzyme in the monolignol biosynthesis pathway that reduces hydroxycinnamaldehydes to monolignols, chain-incorporated aldehyde unit levels are elevated. The nature and relative levels of aldehyde components in lignins can be determined from their distinct and dispersed correlations in 2D 1H-13C correlated NMR spectra. We recently became aware of aldehyde NMR peaks, well-resolved from others, that had been overlooked. NMR of isolated low-molecular-weight oligomers from biomimetic radical coupling reactions involving coniferaldehyde revealed that the correlation peaks belonged to hydroxycinnamaldehyde-derived benzofuran moieties. Coniferaldehyde 8-5-coupling initially produces the expected phenylcoumaran structures, but the derived phenolic radicals undergo preferential disproportionation rather than radical coupling to extend the growing polymer. As a result, hydroxycinnamaldehyde-derived phenylcoumaran units are difficult to detect in lignins, but the benzofurans are now readily observed by their distinct and dispersed correlations in the aldehyde region of NMR spectra from any lignin or monolignol dehydrogenation polymer. Hydroxy-cinnam-aldehydes coupled to coniferaldehyde can be distinguished from those derived from coupling with a generic guaiacyl end-unit. These benzofuran peaks may now be annotated and reported, and their structural ramifications further studied." "Woody plant cell walls : fundamental and utilization" "Wei Li, Ying-Chung Jimmy Lin, Ying-Lan Chen, Chenguang Zhou, Shuang Li, Nette De Ridder, Dyoni Oliveira, Lanjun Zhang, Baocai Zhang, Jack P. Wang, Changzheng Xu, Xiaokang Fu, Keming Luo, Ai-Min Wu, Taku Demura, Meng-Zhu Lu, Yihua Zhou, Laigeng Li, Toshiaki Umezawa, Wout Boerjan, Vincent L. Chiang" "Cell walls in plants, particularly forest trees, are the major carbon sink of the terrestrial ecosystem. Chemical and biosynthetic features of plant cell walls were revealed early on, focusing mostly on herbaceous model species. Recent developments in genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, transgenesis and associated analytical techniques are enabling novel insights into formation of woody cell walls. Here, we review multilevel regulation of cell wall biosynthesis in forest tree species. We highlight current approaches to engineering cell walls as potential feedstock for materials and energy and survey reported field tests of such engineered transgenic trees. We outline opportunities and challenges in future research to better understand cell type biogenesis for more efficient wood cell-wall modification and utilization for biomaterials or for enhanced carbon capture and storage." "Non‐specific effects of the CINNAMATE‐4‐HYDROXYLASE inhibitor piperonylic acid" "Ilias El Houari, Petr Klíma, Alexandra Baekelandt, Paul E. Staswick, Veselina Uzunova, Charo I. Del Genio, Ward Steenackers, Petre I. Dobrev, Roberta Filepová, Ondrej Novák, Richard Napier, Jan Petrášek, Dirk Inzé, Wout Boerjan, Bartel Vanholme" "Accelerating wood domestication in forest trees through genome editing : advances and prospects" "Chantal Anders, Lennart Hoengenaert, Wout Boerjan" "Suppression of the Arabidopsis cinnamoyl-CoA reductase 1-6 intronic T-DNA mutation by epigenetic modification" "Marlies Wouters, Héloïse Bastiaanse, Stephane Rombauts, Lisanne de Vries, Tim De Pooter, Mojca Strazisar, Godfrey Neutelings, Ruben Vanholme, Wout Boerjan" "Downregulation of barley ferulate 5-hydroxylase dramatically alters straw lignin structure without impact on mechanical properties" "Reza Shafiei, Matthew Hooper, Christopher McClellan, Helena Oakey, Jennifer Stephens, Catherine Lapierre, Yukiko Tsuji, Geert Goeminne, Ruben Vanholme, Wout Boerjan, John Ralph, Claire Halpin" "Barley is a major cereal crop for temperate climates, and a diploid genetic model for polyploid wheat. Cereal straw biomass is an attractive source of feedstock for green technologies but lignin, a key determinant of feedstock recalcitrance, complicates bio-conversion processes. However, manipulating lignin content to improve the conversion process could negatively affect agronomic traits. An alternative approach is to manipulate lignin composition which influences the physical and chemical properties of straw. This study validates the function of a barley ferulate 5-hydroxylase gene and demonstrates that its downregulation using the RNA-interference approach substantially impacts lignin composition. We identified five barley genes having putative ferulate 5-hydroxylase activity. Downregulation of HvF5H1 substantially reduced the lignin syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio in straw while the lignin content, straw mechanical properties, plant growth habit, and grain characteristics all remained unaffected. Metabolic profiling revealed significant changes in the abundance of 173 features in the HvF5H1-RNAi lines. The drastic changes in the lignin polymer of transgenic lines highlight the plasticity of barley lignification processes and the associated potential for manipulating and improving lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock for green technologies. On the other hand, our results highlight some differences between the lignin biosynthetic pathway in barley, a temperate climate grass, and the warm climate grass, rice, and underscore potential diversity in the lignin biosynthetic pathways in grasses." "Paving the way towards future‐proofing our crops" "Alexandra Baekelandt, Vandasue L. R. Saltenis, Philippe Nacry, Aleksandra Malyska, Marc Cornelissen, Amrit Kaur Nanda, Abhishek Nair, Peter Rogowsky, Laurens Pauwels, Bertrand Muller, Jonas Collén, Mathias Pribil, Lars B. Scharff, Jessica Davies, Ralf Wilhelm, Norbert Rolland, Jeremy Harbinson, Wout Boerjan, Erik H. Murchie, Alexandra J. Burgess, Jean‐Pierre Cohan, Philippe Debaeke, Sébastien Thomine, Dirk Inzé, René Klein Lankhorst, Martin A. J. Parry" "QT–GWAS : a novel method for unveiling biosynthetic loci affecting qualitative metabolic traits" "Meng Peng, René Höfer, Ilias El Houari, Chiarina Darrah, Veronique Storme, Yvan Saeys, Ruben Vanholme, Geert Goeminne, Vitaliy I. Timokhin, John Ralph, Kris Morreel, Wout Boerjan" "Identification and characterization of CYP71 subclade cytochrome P450 enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of bitterness compounds in Cichorium intybus" "Tom Ruttink, Elia Lacchini, Stephane Rombauts, Annelies Haegeman, ellen de keyser, Christof Van Poucke, Sandrien Desmet, Tom Jacobs, Tom Eeckhaut, Alain Goossens, Katrijn Van Laere" "Synthesis of hydroxycinnamoyl shikimates and their role in monolignol biosynthesis" "Dharshana Padmakshan, Vitaliy, I Timokhin, Fachuang Lu, Paul F. Schatz, Ruben Vanholme, Wout Boerjan, John Ralph"