Analyses of Cell Wall Glycans Using Glycome Profiling in Two Commercially Important Lignocellulosic Fiber Raw Materials

Abstract

Lignocellulosic fibers are plant-based bio-fibers that are sourced from terrestrial and non-terrestrial plants that also include agricultural by-products. In textile industry, being a renewable and sustainable resource, these fibers have attained market potential with their special qualities including biodegradability, applicability in green chemistry, ecofriendly properties and cost effectiveness in processing. Lignocellulosic fibers mainly comprise plant cell walls that are essentially composed of cellulose, lignin, pectin, hemicelluloses and waxes. Numerous studies have been conducted to explain the commercial performance, mechanical properties and sustainability of these lignocellulosic fibers. Although several work have been conducted on the cell wall compositional aspects of these fibers, majority of the studies have been focused on understanding the cellulose and lignin constituents. Hence, there is an increasing need for more studies to be conducted on non-cellulosic cell wall components in these fibers. In this study, we performed a novel immunological approach namely glycome profiling on two commercially important lignocellulosic fibers from aquatic and terrestrial plants namely duckweed and hemp, respectively. Our studies demonstrated differences in the extractability of cell wall glycans from biomass materials from these plants. Duckweed biomass had significantly higher abundance of extractable pectins in their walls. However, cell walls from biomass raw materials of terrestrial plant, hemp had lesser amounts of pectin with significantly higher amounts of xylans that are easily extractable. Duckweed fibers had significantly higher proportion of lignin-associated cell wall glycans in comparison to that of hemp. These results demonstrate that lignocellulosic fiber raw materials from varied plant sources are different in non-cellulosic cell wall glycan compositions and comprehending these variations could potentially be instrumental in commercial processing of these fibers.