Wheat cell-walls, arabinoxylans

Synergism between a-arabinosidase, xylanase and j8-xylosidase has been demonstrated in the hydrolysis of wheat straw arabinoxylan with purified enzymes of T, reesei (71). > en only xylanase and )8-xylosidase were used in the hydrolysis, the xylose yield was only 66% of that produced by the whole culture filtrate at the same activity levels of these two enzymes, and no arabinose was produced. Addition of a-arabinosidase increased the yields of both xylose and arabinose. Enhanced hydrolytic action of hemicellulolytic or pectinolytic enzymes in the hydrolysis of alfalfa cell wall polymers by addition of Ruminococcus albus a-arabinosidase has also been reported (37). 

Phenolic acids, and especially ferulic acid, which is abundantly present in cereals, is found esterified to the polysaccharides present in primary and secondary cell walls of plants. Ferulic acid is the major phenolic acid occurring in the cell walls of monocotyledons and appears as cis and the more abundant trans isomers (reviewed in [Klepacka and Forna, 2006]). Ferulic acid is found in wheat, maize, rye, barley [Sun et al., 2001], oats, spinach, sugar beet, and water chesnuts [Clifford, 1999], generally esterified, and rarely as free form, such as in barley [Yu et al., 2001]. It is esterified in primary cell walls to arabinoxylans (Fig. 2.4) in the aleurone layer and pericarp [Clifford, 1999], as in spinach [Fry, 1982] or in wheat bran [Smith and Hartley, 1983], Ferulic acid can also be found esterified to other hydroxycinnamic acids such as in Mongolian medicinal plants where it is found as feruloylpodospermic acid, which is... 

The subject of the secondary protein structure as a means of defining the performance characteristics ofwheat endosperm-known as hardness-been explored over a seven year period [39, 40]. Another approach, taken by Baron et al., involves the IMS imaging of the endosperm cell walls rather than of the protein found in the endosperm itself [61]. All of these authors performed the imaging in situ, following removal of the protein and starch, in order to study the compositional and architectural heterogeneity and, in relation to this, wheat hardness. In this case, the research was focused on kernel hardness rather than on endosperm hardness, as was the case with our studies. A further study of carbohydrate polymers by the same group involved the investigation of cereal arabinoxylans in relation to their structure and physico-chemical properties. 

In contrast to the cell walls of parenchymatous tissues of dicotyledons, those of cereal grains (wheat, barley, etc.) contain very little, or no, pectic substances. The primary walls of most cereal grains have cellulose microfibrils, which are closely associated with glucomannan, and these fibrillar structures are embedded in an amorphous matrix of hemicelluloses, which consists mainly of arabinoxylans and/or P-D-glucans, some of which are cross-linked by phenolic esters and/or proteins (Selvendran,... 

In foods heteroxylans are mainly present in cereals, found in thin endosperm cell walls, the aleurone layer and lignified bran cells. The endosperm cell walls of most cereals contain 60-70% arabinoxylans, with 20% in barley and 40% in rice. Glumes (husks) of wheat grains contain about 64% heteroxylans. Wheat grains contain on average 1.4-2.1% of heteroxylans, of which 0.8-1.5% represent water soluble pentosans. Rice grains contain 7-8% heteroxylans. 

I.J., Johnson, P., Bedo, Z., Saulnier, L., Shewry, P.R., and Mills, E.N.C. (2011) Spectroscopic analysis of diversity of arabinoxylan structures in endosperm cell walls of wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum) in the HEALTHGRAIN diversity collection. /. Agric. Food Chem., 59 (13), 7075 -7082. 

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