Plant cell walls, molecular

Carpita N. Tierney M. Campbell M. (2001) Molecular biology of the plant cell wall Searching for genes that define structure, architecture and dynamics // Plant Mol. Biol. V. 47. P. 1- 5. 

Ryan, C.A., Bishop, P.D., Walker-Simmons, M., Brown, W. Graham, J. (1985). The role of pectic fragments of the plant cell wall in response to biological stresses. In Cellular and Molecular Biology of Plant Stress, ed. J.L. Key T. Kosuge, pp. 319-34. New York Alan R. Liss. 

Cellulose is a polysaccharide that is also made up of C6H10O5 units. Molecules of cellulose are huge, with molecular weights of around 400,000. The cellulose structure (Figure 3.5) is similar to that of starch. Cellulose is produced by plants and forms the structural material of plant cell walls. Wood is about 60% cellulose, and cotton contains over 90% of this material. Fibers of cellulose are extracted from wood and pressed together to make paper. 

The complex nature and interconnectivity of plant cell wall polymers preclude straightforward enzymatic digestion. There are dozens of enzyme families involved in plant cell wall hydrolysis, including cellulases, hemicellu-lases, pectinases, and lignin-modifying enzymes. The Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) has classified cellulases and hemicellulases, like all enzymes, into different classes based on activity. Table 33.2 and Table 33.3, compiled from the IUBMB enzyme nomenclature database (http //www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iubmb/ enzyme/), list the IUBMB enzyme classifications for cellulases and hemicellulases.153... 

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