An even pattern of xylan substitution is critical for interaction with cellulose in plant cell walls

• Published in: Nature Plants
• Main Authors: Grantham, Nicholas J., Wurman-Rodrich, Joel, Terrett, Oliver M., Lyczakowski, Jan J., Stott, Katherine, Iuga, Dinu, Simmons, Thomas J., Durand Tardif, Mylène, Brown, Steven. P., Dupree, Ray, Busse-Wicher, Marta, Dupree, Paul
• Other Authors: Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge UK (CAM), University of Warwick, Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin (IJPB), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris Saclay (COmUE), Leverhulme Trust, Conicyt Chile, Cambridge Trusts, BBSRC BB/J014540/1, PR140003, BBSRC Novozymes iCASE award BB/M015432/1, EPSRC, University of Warwick through Advantage West Midlands (AWM), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [SDV.BV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology; eskimo*
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02629187; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-017-0030-8

International audience Xylan and cellulose are abundant polysaccharides in vascular plants and essential for secondary cell wall strength. Acetate or glucuronic acid decorations are exclusively found on even-numbered residues in most of the glucuronoxylan polymer. It has been proposed that this even-specific positioning of the decorations might permit docking of xylan onto the hydrophilic face of a cellulose microfibril(1-3). Consequently, xylan adopts a flattened ribbon-like twofold screw conformation when bound to cellulose in the cell wall(4). Here we show that ESKIMO1/XOAT1/TBL29, a xylan-specific O-acetyltransferase, is necessary for generation of the even pattern of acetyl esters on xylan in Arabidopsis . The reduced acetylation in the esk1 mutant deregulates the position-specific activity of the xylan glucuronosyltransferase GUX1, and so the even pattern of glucuronic acid on the xylan is lost. Solid-state NMR of intact cell walls shows that, without the even-patterned xylan decorations, xylan does not interact normally with cellulose fibrils. We conclude that the even pattern of xylan substitutions seen across vascular plants enables the interaction of xylan with hydrophilic faces of cellulose fibrils, and is essential for development of normal plant secondary cell walls.