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Dixon RA, Puente-Urbina A, Beckham GT, Román-Leshkov Y. Enabling Lignin Valorization Through Integrated Advances in Plant Biology and Biorefining. ANNUAL REVIEW OF PLANT BIOLOGY 2024; 75:239-263. [PMID: 39038247 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-062923-022602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/24/2024]
Abstract
Despite lignin having long been viewed as an impediment to the processing of biomass for the production of paper, biofuels, and high-value chemicals, the valorization of lignin to fuels, chemicals, and materials is now clearly recognized as a critical element for the lignocellulosic bioeconomy. However, the intended application for lignin will likely require a preferred lignin composition and form. To that end, effective lignin valorization will require the integration of plant biology, providing optimal feedstocks, with chemical process engineering, providing efficient lignin transformations. Recent advances in our understanding of lignin biosynthesis have shown that lignin structure is extremely diverse and potentially tunable, while simultaneous developments in lignin refining have resulted in the development of several processes that are more agnostic to lignin composition. Here, we review the interface between in planta lignin design and lignin processing and discuss the advances necessary for lignin valorization to become a feature of advanced biorefining.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard A Dixon
- BioDiscovery Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA;
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Allen Puente-Urbina
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
| | - Gregg T Beckham
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
| | - Yuriy Román-Leshkov
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Tang SN, Barnum CR, Szarzanowicz MJ, Sirirungruang S, Shih PM. Harnessing Plant Sugar Metabolism for Glycoengineering. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:1505. [PMID: 38132331 PMCID: PMC10741112 DOI: 10.3390/biology12121505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
Plants possess an innate ability to generate vast amounts of sugar and produce a range of sugar-derived compounds that can be utilized for applications in industry, health, and agriculture. Nucleotide sugars lie at the unique intersection of primary and specialized metabolism, enabling the biosynthesis of numerous molecules ranging from small glycosides to complex polysaccharides. Plants are tolerant to perturbations to their balance of nucleotide sugars, allowing for the overproduction of endogenous nucleotide sugars to push flux towards a particular product without necessitating the re-engineering of upstream pathways. Pathways to produce even non-native nucleotide sugars may be introduced to synthesize entirely novel products. Heterologously expressed glycosyltransferases capable of unique sugar chemistries can further widen the synthetic repertoire of a plant, and transporters can increase the amount of nucleotide sugars available to glycosyltransferases. In this opinion piece, we examine recent successes and potential future uses of engineered nucleotide sugar biosynthetic, transport, and utilization pathways to improve the production of target compounds. Additionally, we highlight current efforts to engineer glycosyltransferases. Ultimately, the robust nature of plant sugar biochemistry renders plants a powerful chassis for the production of target glycoconjugates and glycans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophia N. Tang
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA;
- Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; (M.J.S.)
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA
| | - Collin R. Barnum
- Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Matthew J. Szarzanowicz
- Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; (M.J.S.)
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Sasilada Sirirungruang
- Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; (M.J.S.)
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Patrick M. Shih
- Feedstocks Division, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA; (M.J.S.)
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94710, USA
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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Sajjad M, Ahmad A, Riaz MW, Hussain Q, Yasir M, Lu M. Recent genome resequencing paraded COBRA- Like gene family roles in abiotic stress and wood formation in Poplar. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1242836. [PMID: 37780503 PMCID: PMC10540467 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1242836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
A cell wall determines the mechanical properties of a cell, serves as a barrier against plant stresses, and allows cell division and growth processes. The COBRA-Like (COBL) gene family encodes a putative glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein that controls cellulose deposition and cell progression in plants by contributing to the microfibril orientation of a cell wall. Despite being studied in different plant species, there is a dearth of the comprehensive global analysis of COBL genes in poplar. Poplar is employed as a model woody plant to study abiotic stresses and biomass production in tree research. Improved genome resequencing has enabled the comprehensive exploration of the evolution and functional capacities of PtrCOBLs (Poplar COBRA-Like genes) in poplar. Phylogeny analysis has discerned and classified PtrCOBLs into two groups resembling the Arabidopsis COBL family, and group I genes possess longer proteins but have fewer exons than group II. Analysis of gene structure and motifs revealed PtrCOBLs maintained a rather stable motif and exon-intron pattern across members of the same group. Synteny and collinearity analyses exhibited that the evolution of the COBL gene family was heavily influenced by gene duplication events. PtrCOBL genes have undergone both segmental duplication and tandem duplication, followed by purifying selection. Promotor analysis flaunted various phytohormone-, growth- and stress-related cis-elements (e.g., MYB, ABA, MeJA, SA, AuxR, and ATBP1). Likewise, 29 Ptr-miRNAs of 20 families were found targeting 11 PtrCOBL genes. PtrCOBLs were found localized at the plasma membrane and extracellular matrix, while gene ontology analysis showed their involvement in plant development, plant growth, stress response, cellulose biosynthesis, and cell wall biogenesis. RNA-seq datasets depicted the bulk of PtrCOBL genes expression being found in plant stem tissues and leaves, rendering mechanical strength and rejoinders to environmental cues. PtrCOBL2, 3, 10, and 11 manifested the highest expression in vasculature and abiotic stress, and resemblant expression trends were upheld by qRT-PCR. Co-expression network analysis identified PtrCOBL2 and PtrCOBL3 as hub genes across all abiotic stresses and wood developing tissues. The current study reports regulating roles of PtrCOBLs in xylem differentiating tissues, tension wood formation, and abiotic stress latency that lay the groundwork for future functional studies of the PtrCOBL genes in poplar breeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Sajjad
- State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Adeel Ahmad
- State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, Institute of Cotton Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Anyang, Henan, China
| | - Muhammad Waheed Riaz
- State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Resource Protection and Innovation of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Quaid Hussain
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Muhammad Yasir
- The Key Laboratory for Quality Improvement of Agricultural Products of Zhejiang Province, College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Meng‐Zhu Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, China
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Wang S, Robertz S, Seven M, Kraemer F, Kuhn BM, Liu L, Lunde C, Pauly M, Ramírez V. A large-scale forward genetic screen for maize mutants with altered lignocellulosic properties. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1099009. [PMID: 36959947 PMCID: PMC10028098 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1099009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The development of efficient pipelines for the bioconversion of grass lignocellulosic feedstocks is challenging due to the limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling the synthesis, deposition, and degradation of the varying polymers unique to grass cell walls. Here, we describe a large-scale forward genetic approach resulting in the identification of a collection of chemically mutagenized maize mutants with diverse alterations in their cell wall attributes such as crystalline cellulose content or hemicellulose composition. Saccharification yield, i.e. the amount of lignocellulosic glucose (Glc) released by means of enzymatic hydrolysis, is increased in two of the mutants and decreased in the remaining six. These mutants, termed candy-leaf (cal), show no obvious plant growth or developmental defects despite associated differences in their lignocellulosic composition. The identified cal mutants are a valuable tool not only to understand recalcitrance of grass lignocellulosics to enzymatic deconstruction but also to decipher grass-specific aspects of cell wall biology once the genetic basis, i.e. the location of the mutation, has been identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaogan Wang
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Stefan Robertz
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Merve Seven
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Florian Kraemer
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Benjamin M. Kuhn
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Lifeng Liu
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - China Lunde
- Plant Gene Expression Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Albany, CA, United States
| | - Markus Pauly
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
| | - Vicente Ramírez
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology-Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
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Ohtani M, Kotake T, Mortimer JC, Demura T. The Mechanics and Biology of Plant Cell Walls: Resilience and Sustainability for Our Future Society. PLANT & CELL PHYSIOLOGY 2021; 62:1787-1790. [PMID: 34958673 DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcab168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Revised: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Misato Ohtani
- Department of Integrated Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Science, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha,Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8563 Japan
- Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192 Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, 230-0045 Japan
| | - Toshihisa Kotake
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama, 338-8570 Japan
| | - Jenny C Mortimer
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine & Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia
- Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Taku Demura
- Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192 Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, 230-0045 Japan
- Center for Digital Green-innovation, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192 Japan
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