@article{BanksNishiyamaHasebeetal.2011, author = {Banks, Jo Ann and Nishiyama, Tomoaki and Hasebe, Mitsuyasu and Bowman, John L. and Gribskov, Michael and dePamphilis, Claude and Albert, Victor A. and Aono, Naoki and Aoyama, Tsuyoshi and Ambrose, Barbara A. and Ashton, Neil W. and Axtell, Michael J. and Barker, Elizabeth and Barker, Michael S. and Bennetzen, Jeffrey L. and Bonawitz, Nicholas D. and Chapple, Clint and Cheng, Chaoyang and Correa, Luiz Gustavo Guedes and Dacre, Michael and DeBarry, Jeremy and Dreyer, Ingo and Elias, Marek and Engstrom, Eric M. and Estelle, Mark and Feng, Liang and Finet, Cedric and Floyd, Sandra K. and Frommer, Wolf B. and Fujita, Tomomichi and Gramzow, Lydia and Gutensohn, Michael and Harholt, Jesper and Hattori, Mitsuru and Heyl, Alexander and Hirai, Tadayoshi and Hiwatashi, Yuji and Ishikawa, Masaki and Iwata, Mineko and Karol, Kenneth G. and Koehler, Barbara and Kolukisaoglu, Uener and Kubo, Minoru and Kurata, Tetsuya and Lalonde, Sylvie and Li, Kejie and Li, Ying and Litt, Amy and Lyons, Eric and Manning, Gerard and Maruyama, Takeshi and Michael, Todd P. and Mikami, Koji and Miyazaki, Saori and Morinaga, Shin-ichi and Murata, Takashi and M{\"u}ller-R{\"o}ber, Bernd and Nelson, David R. and Obara, Mari and Oguri, Yasuko and Olmstead, Richard G. and Onodera, Naoko and Petersen, Bent Larsen and Pils, Birgit and Prigge, Michael and Rensing, Stefan A. and Mauricio Riano-Pachon, Diego and Roberts, Alison W. and Sato, Yoshikatsu and Scheller, Henrik Vibe and Schulz, Burkhard and Schulz, Christian and Shakirov, Eugene V. and Shibagaki, Nakako and Shinohara, Naoki and Shippen, Dorothy E. and Sorensen, Iben and Sotooka, Ryo and Sugimoto, Nagisa and Sugita, Mamoru and Sumikawa, Naomi and Tanurdzic, Milos and Theissen, Guenter and Ulvskov, Peter and Wakazuki, Sachiko and Weng, Jing-Ke and Willats, William W. G. T. and Wipf, Daniel and Wolf, Paul G. and Yang, Lixing and Zimmer, Andreas D. and Zhu, Qihui and Mitros, Therese and Hellsten, Uffe and Loque, Dominique and Otillar, Robert and Salamov, Asaf and Schmutz, Jeremy and Shapiro, Harris and Lindquist, Erika and Lucas, Susan and Rokhsar, Daniel and Grigoriev, Igor V.}, title = {The selaginella genome identifies genetic changes associated with the evolution of vascular plants}, series = {Science}, volume = {332}, journal = {Science}, number = {6032}, publisher = {American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0036-8075}, doi = {10.1126/science.1203810}, pages = {960 -- 963}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Vascular plants appeared similar to 410 million years ago, then diverged into several lineages of which only two survive: the euphyllophytes (ferns and seed plants) and the lycophytes. We report here the genome sequence of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii (Selaginella), the first nonseed vascular plant genome reported. By comparing gene content in evolutionarily diverse taxa, we found that the transition from a gametophyte- to a sporophyte-dominated life cycle required far fewer new genes than the transition from a nonseed vascular to a flowering plant, whereas secondary metabolic genes expanded extensively and in parallel in the lycophyte and angiosperm lineages. Selaginella differs in posttranscriptional gene regulation, including small RNA regulation of repetitive elements, an absence of the trans-acting small interfering RNA pathway, and extensive RNA editing of organellar genes.}, language = {en} } @article{RuzanskiSmirnovaRejzeketal.2013, author = {Ruzanski, Christian and Smirnova, Julia and Rejzek, Martin and Cockburn, Darrell and Pedersen, Henriette L. and Pike, Marilyn and Willats, William G. T. and Svensson, Birte and Steup, Martin and Ebenh{\"o}h, Oliver and Smith, Alison M. and Field, Robert A.}, title = {A bacterial glucanotransferase can replace the complex maltose metabolism required for starch to sucrose conversion in leaves at night}, series = {The journal of biological chemistry}, volume = {288}, journal = {The journal of biological chemistry}, number = {40}, publisher = {American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology}, address = {Bethesda}, issn = {0021-9258}, doi = {10.1074/jbc.M113.497867}, pages = {28581 -- 28598}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Controlled conversion of leaf starch to sucrose at night is essential for the normal growth of Arabidopsis. The conversion involves the cytosolic metabolism of maltose to hexose phosphates via an unusual, multidomain protein with 4-glucanotransferase activity, DPE2, believed to transfer glucosyl moieties to a complex heteroglycan prior to their conversion to hexose phosphate via a cytosolic phosphorylase. The significance of this complex pathway is unclear; conversion of maltose to hexose phosphate in bacteria proceeds via a more typical 4-glucanotransferase that does not require a heteroglycan acceptor. It has recently been suggested that DPE2 generates a heterogeneous series of terminal glucan chains on the heteroglycan that acts as a glucosyl buffer to ensure a constant rate of sucrose synthesis in the leaf at night. Alternatively, DPE2 and/or the heteroglycan may have specific properties important for their function in the plant. To distinguish between these ideas, we compared the properties of DPE2 with those of the Escherichia coli glucanotransferase MalQ. We found that MalQ cannot use the plant heteroglycan as an acceptor for glucosyl transfer. However, experimental and modeling approaches suggested that it can potentially generate a glucosyl buffer between maltose and hexose phosphate because, unlike DPE2, it can generate polydisperse malto-oligosaccharides from maltose. Consistent with this suggestion, MalQ is capable of restoring an essentially wild-type phenotype when expressed in mutant Arabidopsis plants lacking DPE2. In light of these findings, we discuss the possible evolutionary origins of the complex DPE2-heteroglycan pathway.}, language = {en} } @article{RajasundaramRunavotGuoetal.2014, author = {Rajasundaram, Dhivyaa and Runavot, Jean-Luc and Guo, Xiaoyuan and Willats, William G. T. and Meulewaeter, Frank and Selbig, Joachim}, title = {Understanding the relationship between cotton fiber properties and non-cellulosic cell wall polysaccharides}, series = {PLoS one}, volume = {9}, journal = {PLoS one}, number = {11}, publisher = {PLoS}, address = {San Fransisco}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0112168}, pages = {11}, year = {2014}, abstract = {A detailed knowledge of cell wall heterogeneity and complexity is crucial for understanding plant growth and development. One key challenge is to establish links between polysaccharide-rich cell walls and their phenotypic characteristics. It is of particular interest for some plant material, like cotton fibers, which are of both biological and industrial importance. To this end, we attempted to study cotton fiber characteristics together with glycan arrays using regression based approaches. Taking advantage of the comprehensive microarray polymer profiling technique (CoMPP), 32 cotton lines from different cotton species were studied. The glycan array was generated by sequential extraction of cell wall polysaccharides from mature cotton fibers and screening samples against eleven extensively characterized cell wall probes. Also, phenotypic characteristics of cotton fibers such as length, strength, elongation and micronaire were measured. The relationship between the two datasets was established in an integrative manner using linear regression methods. In the conducted analysis, we demonstrated the usefulness of regression based approaches in establishing a relationship between glycan measurements and phenotypic traits. In addition, the analysis also identified specific polysaccharides which may play a major role during fiber development for the final fiber characteristics. Three different regression methods identified a negative correlation between micronaire and the xyloglucan and homogalacturonan probes. Moreover, homogalacturonan and callose were shown to be significant predictors for fiber length. The role of these polysaccharides was already pointed out in previous cell wall elongation studies. Additional relationships were predicted for fiber strength and elongation which will need further experimental validation.}, language = {en} }