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Working towards recalcitrance mechanisms: increased xylan and homogalacturonan production by overexpression of GAlactUronosylTransferase12 (GAUT12) causes increased recalcitrance and decreased growth in Populus

Journal Article · · Biotechnology for Biofuels
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [9];  [9];  [10];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
  2. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); Mascoma LLC (Lallemand Inc.), Lebanon, NH (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) and Bioscience Division
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); ArborGen, Inc., Ridgeville, SC (United States)
  5. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
  6. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Complex Carbohydrate Research Center; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); South Georgia State College, Douglas, GA (United States)
  7. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Nuclear Materials Science
  8. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Nu Mark LLC, Richmond, VA (United States)
  9. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  10. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Dept. of Plant Biology; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The development of fast-growing hardwood trees as a source of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel and biomaterial production requires a thorough understanding of the plant cell wall structure and function that underlie the inherent recalcitrance properties of woody biomass. Downregulation of GAUT12.1 in Populus deltoides was recently reported to result in improved biomass saccharification, plant growth, and biomass yield. To further understand GAUT12.1 function in biomass recalcitrance and plant growth, here we report the effects of P. trichocarpa GAUT12.1 overexpression in P. deltoides. Increasing GAUT12.1 transcript expression by 7-49% in P. deltoides PtGAUT12.1-overexpression (OE) lines resulted in a nearly complete opposite biomass saccharification and plant growth phenotype to that observed previously in PdGAUT12.1-knockdown (KD) lines. This also included significantly reduced glucose, xylose, and total sugar release (12-13%), plant height (6-54%), stem diameter (8-40%), and overall total aerial biomass yield (48-61%) in 3-month-old, greenhouse-grown PtGAUT12.1-OE lines compared to controls. Total lignin content was unaffected by the gene overexpression. Importantly, selected PtGAUT12.1-OE lines retained the recalcitrance and growth phenotypes upon growth for 9 months in the greenhouse and 2.8 years in the field. PtGAUT12.1-OE plants had significantly smaller leaves with lower relative water content, and significantly reduced stem wood xylem cell numbers and size. At the cell wall level, xylose and galacturonic acid contents increased markedly in total cell walls as well as in soluble and insoluble cell wall extracts, consistent with increased amounts of xylan and homogalacturonan in the PtGAUT12.1-OE lines. This led to increased cell wall recalcitrance, as manifested by the 9-15% reduced amounts of recovered extractable wall materials and 8-15% greater amounts of final insoluble pellet in the PtGAUT12.1-OE lines compared to controls. The combined phenotype and chemotype data from P. deltoides PtGAUT12.1-OE and PdGAUT12.1-KD transgenics clearly establish GAUT12.1 as a recalcitrance- and growth-associated gene in poplar. Overall, the data support the hypothesis that GAUT12.1 synthesizes either an HG-containing primer for xylan synthesis or an HG glycan required for proper xylan deposition, anchoring, and/or architecture in the wall, and the possibility of HG and xylan glycans being connected to each other by a base-sensitive covalent linkage.
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
BioEnergy Science Center (BESC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; AC36-08GO28308; SC0015662
Other Award/Contract Number:
PS02-06ER64304
DBI-0421683
IOS-0923992
OSTI ID:
1422869
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1468032
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--2700-70640
Journal Information:
Biotechnology for Biofuels, Journal Name: Biotechnology for Biofuels Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 11; ISSN 1754-6834
Publisher:
BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (6)

A novel FC17/CESA4 mutation causes increased biomass saccharification and lodging resistance by remodeling cell wall in rice journal November 2018
Xylan in the Middle: Understanding Xylan Biosynthesis and Its Metabolic Dependencies Toward Improving Wood Fiber for Industrial Processing journal February 2019
Wood Transcriptome Profiling Identifies Critical Pathway Genes of Secondary Wall Biosynthesis and Novel Regulators for Vascular Cambium Development in Populus journal September 2019
A two-phase model for the non-processive biosynthesis of homogalacturonan polysaccharides by the GAUT1:GAUT7 complex journal October 2018
Multitrait genome‐wide association analysis of Populus trichocarpa identifies key polymorphisms controlling morphological and physiological traits journal April 2019
Rhamnogalacturonan‐I is a determinant of cell–cell adhesion in poplar wood journal October 2019

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09 BIOMASS FUELS
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
biofuel
biomass
pectin
plant cell wall
xylan
yield