posted on 2025-02-05, 01:29authored byJan Hellinger, John Ralph, Steven D. Karlen
Carbon-rich plant cell walls contain biopolymers that,
with some
processing, could replace fossil fuels as a major component of the
current petrochemical production. To realize this, biorefineries need
to be paired with biomass that during the deconstruction and fractionation
processes transforms into the desired products. One component of interest
is p-coumarate that, in some species, can account
for up to 1% of the biomass’ dry weight. When p-coumarate is present in eudicot cell walls, it is mostly part of
the suberin (bark and root), acylates the γ-hydroxy group of
the lignin, in part of the tannins, or is a metabolite. The current
understanding of eudicot plant cell wall composition is that the lignin
is sometimes acylated with acetate and rarely with hydroxycinnamates
(p-coumarate or ferulate). This study identified
a clear division in the Rosales in which three families produce p-coumaroylated lignins whereas the other six families showed
no evidence of the trait.