Plant cell walls remain a major challenge for plant biology in terms of understanding their assembly, structure-function relations and diversity. The aim of this project is to provide insight into the evolution of mechanical tissues in early-diverged plant lineages (liverworts, hornworts, mosses, hornworts, lycophytes and ferns) through comparative analysis of their cell wall architecture and biomechanical properties.
Initial research will focus on screening the diversity of mechanical tissues to select relevant species for an in-depth-analysis of cell wall architecture (composition and structure) by in situ characterisation (immunocytochemistry and electron microscopy) and biochemical analyses of wall preparations (neutral monosaccharide and oligosaccharide analyses as well as thioacidolysis and state-of-the-art 2D-NMR lignin analysis). Finally, we will assess the biomechanical performance of mechanical tissues with different cell wall architectures and investigate their (cell wall) dynamics during growth and development and in response to mechanical perturbation.
Characterising cell wall diversity across the plant kingdom is important for better understanding cell wall structure and function, and for optimal utilization of the largest source of biomass on Earth. This project is likely to produce insight into the adaptive significance of cell wall architecture in plant terrestrialisation and, the significance of lignin for the evolution and properties of mechanical tissues.