نبذة مختصرة : Plant biomass plays an increasingly important role in the circular bioeconomy, replacing non-renewable fossil resources. Genetic engineering of this lignocellulosic biomass could benefit biorefinery transformation chains by lowering economic and technological barriers to industrial processing. However, previous efforts have mostly targeted the major constituents of woody biomass: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Here we report the engineering of wood structure through the introduction of callose, a polysaccharide novel to most secondary cell walls. Our multiscale analysis of genetically engineered poplar trees shows that callose deposition modulates cell wall porosity, water and lignin contents and increases the lignin-cellulose distance, ultimately resulting in substantially decreased biomass recalcitrance. We provide a model of the wood cell wall nano-architecture engineered to accommodate the hydrated callose inclusions. Ectopic polymer introduction into biomass manifests in new physico-chemical properties and offers new avenues when considering lignocellulose engineering.Bourdon et al. demonstrate the possibility to ectopically synthesize callose, a polymer restricted to primary cell walls, into Arabidopsis and aspen secondary cell walls to manipulate their ultrastructure and ultimately reduce their recalcitrance. ; Peer reviewed
Relation: We thank G. Evans for technical support with microscopy experiments; L. Wang for statistical analysis assistance; G. Hindle, J. Salmon and S. Ward for media preparation; K. Blajecka for technical assistance; J. Daff, L. Tully, B. Fidget, A. Jootoo and G. Porteous for Horticulture assistance; M. Calatraba for lignin analysis; T. Weber from the ETH X-Ray Service Platform for technical support with the SAXS equipment; and K. Kainulainen for in vitro maintenance and horticulture assistance. R.C. was supported by UK BBSRC (Grant BB/R015783/1) to R.D. The UK High-Field Solid-State NMR Facility used in this research was funded by EPSRC and BBSRC (EP/T015063/1) as well as the University of Warwick including via part funding through Birmingham Science City Advanced Materials Projects 1 and 2 supported by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). We thank the Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre (CAIC) for providing access to their TEM resources and for technical assistance in imaging. Lignin analysis was supported by the Soluserre funding (Region Pays de la Loire, France). The authors acknowledge the funding received from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) Strategic Science Investment Fund (Contract No. C0X41703, High-Value Biorefineries Portfolio). Part of this research was conducted as part of the Scion-INRAE-U Montpellier-Institut Agro Associated International Laboratory BIOMATA. F.V. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (grants 621-2014-5295 and 2020-04720) and from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (through the Wallenberg Wood Science Centre). Work in the Y.B.-A. lab was supported by the Leverhulme Trust (Grant RPG-2016-136), which funded S.A., and the UKRI Future Leader Fellowship programme (MR/T04263X/1). Work in the J.J.L. lab was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre Poland awarded to J.J.L. as part of the SONATINA 3 programme (project number 2019/32/C/NZ3/00392) and a grant from the National Science Centre Poland awarded as part of the SONATA 17 programme (project number 2021/43/D/NZ9/01978). M.B. was supported by ERC Proof of Concept APPLICAL (2020-2022) and HiLife Proof of Concept APPLICAL (2020-2021) grants. L.K. received funding from the SNSF (P2LAP3_178062) and a Marie Curie IEF (No. 795250). Work in the Y.H. lab was supported by the Finnish CoE in Molecular Biology of Primary Producers (Academy of Finland CoE programme 2014-2019; decision no. 271832), the Gatsby Foundation (GAT3395/PR3), the University of Helsinki (award 799992091) and the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant SYMDEV (No. 323052).; http://hdl.handle.net/10138/565851; 85169797818; 001061915300001
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