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Formation of wood secondary cell wall may involve two type cellulose synthase complexes in Populus

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Abstract

Cellulose biosynthesis is mediated by cellulose synthases (CesAs), which constitute into rosette-like cellulose synthase complexe (CSC) on the plasma membrane. Two types of CSCs in Arabidopsis are believed to be involved in cellulose synthesis in the primary cell wall and secondary cell walls, respectively. In this work, we found that the two type CSCs participated cellulose biosynthesis in differentiating xylem cells undergoing secondary cell wall thickening in Populus. During the cell wall thickening process, expression of one type CSC genes increased while expression of the other type CSC genes decreased. Suppression of different type CSC genes both affected the wall-thickening and disrupted the multilaminar structure of the secondary cell walls. When CesA7A was suppressed, crystalline cellulose content was reduced, which, however, showed an increase when CesA3D was suppressed. The CesA suppression also affected cellulose digestibility of the wood cell walls. The results suggest that two type CSCs are involved in coordinating the cellulose biosynthesis in formation of the multilaminar structure in Populus wood secondary cell walls.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Xiaoyan Gao, Zhiping Zhang and Jiqin Li assistance for electron microscopic observation, Wenli Hu for GC–MS analysis. This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31130012, 31300500) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB114502).

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    1. National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China

      Wang Xi, Dongliang Song, Jiayan Sun, Junhui Shen & Laigeng Li

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    1. Wang Xi
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    3. Jiayan Sun
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    Correspondence to Laigeng Li.

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    The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

    Author contributions

    WX and DS carried out the experiments, contributing equally to this work, JYS performed transformation and grew Populus trees, JHS carried out part of the experiments. WX, DS and LL designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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    W. Xi and D. Song have contributed equally to this work.

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    11103_2016_570_MOESM1_ESM.tif

    Figure S1 Identification of CesA complex from developing xylem. Different CesA complexes isolated from developing xylem were separated by two-dimensional BN/SDS-PAGE and immuno-analyzed using specific anti-CesA7, anti-CesA8, anti-CesA1, and anti-CesA3 antibodies. The predicted positions of CesA monomer (1), dimer (2), tetramer (4), and hexamer (6) complexes are indicated with number and arrow. (TIF 272 KB)

    11103_2016_570_MOESM2_ESM.tif

    Figure S2 Transgenic plants of CesA suppression in Populus. Representative transgenic plants of suppression of PtrCesA3D (A), PtrCesA7A(B), PtrCesA1A(C) and PtrCesA8A(D). Note: Transgenic plants of PtrCesA1A and PtrCesA8A suppression were generated at a different time from those of PtrCesA3D and PtrCesA7A suppression. (TIF 1109 KB)

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    Xi, W., Song, D., Sun, J. et al. Formation of wood secondary cell wall may involve two type cellulose synthase complexes in Populus . Plant Mol Biol 93, 419–429 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-016-0570-8

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