Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Plant cell walls are primarily composed of the cellulose and hemicellulose, embedded in a polysaccharide gel called pectin. These cell wall components interact with one another to create an environmental barrier that meets the needs of the cell during growth and differentiation. In addition the wall provides an extracellular medium through which adjacent cells are connected to each other. Consequently, information concerning plant cell wall structure and how it can be modified as cells develop and adapt to a changing environment is valuable and has many applications in agriculture and forestry. We study a specialized cell type of the Arabidopsis thaliana seed coat that makes large quantities of cell wall polysaccharides. Mutants unable to synthesize these polysaccharides correctly are identified and used to isolate the corresponding genes needed for cell wall function. Using this approach we propose to study how 1. Cellulose and pectin interact to make a cohesive cell wall, 2. Cell walls are anchored to the cell membrane, 3. The cell wall components are delivered to the outside of the cell, and 4. To engineer cell wall components. We believe that answers to these questions will help us to understand and manipulate physical properties of the cell wall for the purposes of influencing plant growth and development.