New Plant structure may improve biofuel processing

Great new work from Debra Mohnen and Li Tan in the BioEnergy Science Center:

When Li Tan approached his colleagues at the University of Georgia with some unusual data he had collected, they initially seemed convinced that his experiment had become contaminated; what he was seeing simply didn’t make any sense.

Tan was examining some of the sugars, proteins and polymers that make up plant cell walls, which provide the structural support and protection that allow plants to grow.  Yet his samples contained a mixture of sugars that should not be present in the same structure.

However Tan was convinced that his samples were pure so he and his lab head Debra Mohnen met again to pour over the data. They came to realize that there were hints in the data of a connection between two different types of cell wall glycans (sugars) and a specific cell wall protein known as arabinogalactan protein. This connection is not known to exist and does not conform to the commonly held scientific definitions of plant cell wall structure. 

Congratulations to Mohnen, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and member of the CCRC, and Tan, a research scientist in the CCRC. A discovery that posits a fundamental misconception is a very valuable to the wider scientific community. Mohnen and Tan have offered proof of something that has been suspected for decades; the diligence behind this breakthrough is evidence of the work by scientists to make inroads into new sources of renewable fuels.

Image: Debra Mohnen, courtesy of UGA photography.