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Cell wall

Cycling ferulate in monocot cell walls

Nature Plants volume 10, pages 1284–1286 (2024)Cite this article

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Cell walls in grasses contain arabinoxylan polysaccharides decorated with ferulate groups but the mechanism by which the ferulate is attached to arabinoxylans has long remained unknown. A new study shows that ferulate is transferred to arabinoxylan from a 3,6-di-O-feruloyl sucrose intermediate formed in a sucrose ferulate cycle.

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Fig. 1: Cell wall cross-linking mediated by ferulate on arabinoxylan.

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Acknowledgements

R. A. Smith and J. Ralph are supported by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program under Award Number DE-SC0018409.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Rebecca A. Smith & John Ralph

  2. Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Rebecca A. Smith

  3. Departments of Biochemistry and Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    John Ralph

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  1. Rebecca A. Smith
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Correspondence to Rebecca A. Smith or John Ralph.

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Smith, R.A., Ralph, J. Cycling ferulate in monocot cell walls. Nat. Plants 10, 1284–1286 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01787-9

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