Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT, UK.
Mol Plant. 2011 Mar;4(2):212-9. doi: 10.1093/mp/ssq075. Epub 2011 Jan 3.
Polysaccharide-rich plant cell walls are important biomaterials that underpin plant growth, are major repositories for photosynthetically accumulated carbon, and, in addition, impact greatly on the human use of plants. Land plant cell walls contain in the region of a dozen major polysaccharide structures that are mostly encompassed by cellulose, hemicelluloses, and pectic polysaccharides. During the evolution of land plants, polysaccharide diversification appears to have largely involved structural elaboration and diversification within these polysaccharide groups. Cell wall chemistry is well advanced and a current phase of cell wall science is aimed at placing the complex polysaccharide chemistry in cellular contexts and developing a detailed understanding of cell wall biology. Imaging cell wall glycomes is a challenging area but recent developments in the establishment of cell wall molecular probe panels and their use in high throughput procedures are leading to rapid advances in the molecular understanding of the spatial heterogeneity of individual cell walls and also cell wall differences at taxonomic levels. The challenge now is to integrate this knowledge of cell wall heterogeneity with an understanding of the molecular and physiological mechanisms that underpin cell wall properties and functions.
富含多糖的植物细胞壁是重要的生物材料，它们支撑着植物的生长，是光合作用积累的碳的主要储存库，此外，还极大地影响了人类对植物的利用。陆地植物细胞壁包含大约 12 种主要多糖结构，这些多糖结构主要包含纤维素、半纤维素和果胶多糖。在陆地植物的进化过程中，多糖的多样化似乎主要涉及这些多糖群内的结构精细化和多样化。细胞壁化学已经相当先进，细胞壁科学的当前阶段旨在将复杂的多糖化学置于细胞环境中，并深入了解细胞壁生物学。对细胞壁糖组进行成像具有挑战性，但在建立细胞壁分子探针面板及其在高通量程序中的应用方面的最新进展，正在导致对单个细胞壁的空间异质性以及在分类学水平上的细胞壁差异的分子理解的快速进展。现在的挑战是将细胞壁异质性的这一知识与对支撑细胞壁特性和功能的分子和生理机制的理解结合起来。
