New ‘Architecture’ Discovered in Corn: Scientists’ Findings May Improve Biofuel Production
(Louisiana State University/Science Daily) New research on the United States’ most economically important agricultural plant — corn — has revealed a different internal structure of the plant than previously thought, which can help optimize how corn is converted into ethanol. — It has been previously thought that cellulose, a thick and rigid complex carbohydrate that acts like a scaffold in corn and other plants, connected directly to a waterproof polymer called lignin. However, Wang ( LSU Department of Chemistry Assistant Professor Tuo Wang) and colleagues discovered that lignin has limited contact with cellulose inside a plant. Instead, the wiry complex carbohydrate called xylan connects cellulose and lignin as the glue.
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Wang and colleagues are the first to investigate an intact corn plant stalk at the atomic level using high-resolution techniques. The LSU team includes Postdoctoral Researcher Xue Kang and two graduate students, Malitha Dickwella Widanage from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Alex Kirui from Nakuru, Kenya.
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It has also been previously thought that the cellulose, lignin and xylan molecules are mixed, but the scientists discovered that they each have separate domains and these domains perform separate functions.
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Lignin with its waterproof properties is a key structural component in plants. Lignin also poses a challenge to ethanol production because it prevents sugar from being converted to ethanol within a plant. Significant research has been done on how to break down plant structure or breeding more digestible plants to produce ethanol or other biofuels. However, this research has been done without the full picture of plants’ molecular structure.
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In addition to corn, Wang and his colleagues analyzed three other plant species: rice, switchgrass that is also used for biofuel production and the model plant species Arabidopsis, which is a flowering plant related to cabbage. The scientists found that the molecular structure among the four plants are similar.
They discovered this by using a solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy instrument at LSU and at the National Science Foundation’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla.
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They are now analyzing wood from eucalyptus, poplar and spruce, which could help improve the paper production and material development industries as well. READ MORE
Lignin-polysaccharide interactions in plant secondary cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR. (Nature Communications)
