Abstract
The cell wall is one major determinant of plant cell morphology, and is an attractive bioresource. Here, we report a novel strategy to modify plant cell wall property by small molecules. Lasalocid sodium (LS) was isolated by chemical screening to identify molecules that affect the cell morphology of tobacco BY-2 cells. LS treatment led to an increase in cell wall thickness, whilst the quantity and sugar composition of the cell wall remained unchanged in BY-2 cells. The chemical also disordered the cellular arrangement of hypocotyls of Arabidopsis plants, resulting in a decrease in hypocotyl length. LS treatment enhanced enzymatic saccharification efficiency in both BY-2 cells and Arabidopsis plants. Microarray analysis on Arabidopsis showed that exposure to LS upregulated type III peroxidase genes, of which some are involved in lignin biogenesis, and jasmonic acid response genes, and phloroglucinol staining supported the activation of lignification by the LS treatment. As jasmonic acid-mediated lignification is a typical reaction to cell wall damage, it is possible that LS induces cell wall loosening, which can trigger cell wall damage response. Thus, LS is a unique chemical for modification of cell wall and morphology through changes in cell wall architecture.
Highlights
Methods, such as transformation technology, to modify target genes
A specific dye that stains β-glucan that is present in cellulose, the main component of the cell wall, to observe the walls of BY-2 cells treated with candidate chemicals
In BY-2 cells, lasalocid sodium (LS) treatment increased the thickness of the cell wall, but it had little effect on the sugar composition of the wall (Fig. 2, Supplementary Figs 3 and 4C, and Table 1), suggesting that LS induced the loosing of cell wall structure
Summary
Methods, such as transformation technology, to modify target genes. These requirements make it difficult to apply genetic modification to non-model plants. The screening of a chemical library is an effective way to identify novel interaction between chemicals and specific biological events and, in combination with genetics, chemical biology is greatly contributing to understanding of plant molecular biological systems, including cell wall biosynthesis, the cytoskeleton, hormone biosynthesis and signaling, gravitropism, pathogenesis, and endomembrane trafficking[7,8]. Chemicals with high specificity for target molecules can be converted into useful tools to control particular biological events All these aspects suggest that the chemical biological approach is a fruitful strategy with which to modify properties of plant cell walls without need for genetic modification and that in the future it can be applied to non-model industrial plants. Our results demonstrate great potential of the chemical biological approach to further cell wall engineering
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