Suberin: A Biopolyester of Plants' Skin

Graça, José; Santos, Sara

doi:10.1002/mabi.200600218

Cited by 175 publications

(166 citation statements)

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“…Most of these phenolics are oxidatively cross linked (Bernards et al, 1995) and will not yield monomers by polyester depolymerization methods. Models for suberin structure of potato periderm (Bernards, 2002) or cork (Quercus suber; Graça and Santos, 2007), based as they are on earlier iterations (Kolattukudy, 1981), show some divergence, but agree that the electrontranslucent bands are aliphatic rich and that there is an aliphatic polyester. The thickness of this layer coincides with the length of the carbon chain of the aliphatic monomers (Schmutz et al, 1996).…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Models describing the lamellar structure of suberin require esterified ferulate to covalently link aliphatic polyesters to the cross-linked aromatic domain(s) (Bernards, 2002;Graça and Santos, 2007). Because the chemical phenotype of asft is loss of ferulate, we investigated whether this loss would cause a change in the characteristic lamellar structure of suberin observed by TEM.…”

Section: Loss Of Ferulate Monomer Does Not Affect Suberin Lamellar Stmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The opaque bands may correspond to glycerol, esterified phenolics, and waxes. A model for cork suberin (Graça and Santos, 2007) presents a single aliphatic-chainwide translucent domain where the polyacylglycerol mainly folds back on itself, and a wider, variablewidth electron-rich domain that contains the crosslinked hydroxycinnamic acids. In both models ferulic acid has been suggested to provide crucial covalent links between polyaromatics and the suberin aliphatic polyester.…”

Section: Implications For Models Of Suberin Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Identification of an Arabidopsis Feruloyl-Coenzyme A Transferase Required for Suberin Synthesis

et al. 2009

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All plants produce suberin, a lipophilic barrier of the cell wall that controls water and solute fluxes and restricts pathogen infection. It is often described as a heteropolymer comprised of polyaliphatic and polyaromatic domains. Major monomers include v-hydroxy and a,v-dicarboxylic fatty acids, glycerol, and ferulate. No genes have yet been identified for the aromatic suberin pathway. Here we demonstrate that Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) gene AT5G41040, a member of the BAHD family of acyltransferases, is essential for incorporation of ferulate into suberin. In Arabidopsis plants transformed with the AT5G41040 promoter:YFP fusion, reporter expression is localized to cell layers undergoing suberization. Knockout mutants of AT5G41040 show almost complete elimination of suberin-associated ester-linked ferulate. However, the classic lamellar structure of suberin in root periderm of at5g41040 is not disrupted. The reduction in ferulate in at5g41040-knockout seeds is associated with an approximate stoichiometric decrease in aliphatic monomers containing v-hydroxyl groups. Recombinant AT5G41040p catalyzed acyl transfer from feruloyl-coenzyme A to v-hydroxyfatty acids and fatty alcohols, demonstrating that the gene encodes a feruloyl transferase. CYP86B1, a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase gene whose transcript levels correlate with AT5G41040 expression, was also investigated. Knockouts and overexpression confirmed CYP86B1 as an oxidase required for the biosynthesis of very-long-chain saturated a,v-bifunctional aliphatic monomers in suberin. The seed suberin composition of cyp86b1 knockout was surprisingly dominated by unsubstituted fatty acids that are incapable of polymeric linkages. Together, these results challenge our current view of suberin structure by questioning both the function of ester-linked ferulate as an essential component and the existence of an extended aliphatic polyester.

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mentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Loss Of Ferulate Monomer Does Not Affect Suberin Lamellar Stmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For Models Of Suberin Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Identification of an Arabidopsis Feruloyl-Coenzyme A Transferase Required for Suberin Synthesis

et al. 2009

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“…Moreover, whereas phelloderm cells are parenchymatous, phellem cells have to undergo several sequential differentiation stages (cell expansion, massive deposition of suberin into their cell walls, and programmed cell death) to reach maturity (Soler et al 2007). In these phellem cells walls, the deposition of suberin, a highly hydrophobic polyester comprised of aliphatic monomers esterified to aromatic compounds (Bernards 2002;Graça and Santos 2007;Pollard et al 2008), provides the periderm with its protective role. This polyester is linked to cell wall through a lignin-like polymerized aromatic domain (Bernards 2002;Pollard et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative transcriptomic approach to understanding the formation of cork

et al. 2017

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Key message The transcriptome comparison of two oak species reveals possible candidates accounting for the exceptionally thick and pure cork oak phellem, such as those involved in secondary metabolism and phellogen activity. Abstract Cork oak, Quercus suber, differs from other Mediterranean oaks such as holm oak (Quercus ilex) by the thickness and organization of the external bark. While holm oak outer bark contains sequential periderms interspersed with dead secondary phloem (rhytidome), the cork oak outer bark only contains thick layers of phellem (cork rings) that accumulate until reaching a thickness that allows industrial uses. Here we compare the cork oak outer bark transcriptome with that of holm oak. Both transcriptomes present similitudes in their complexity, but whereas cork oak external bark is enriched with upregulated genes related to suberin, which is the main polymer responsible for the protective function of periderm, the upregulated categories of holm oak are enriched in abiotic stress and chromatin assembly. Concomitantly with the upregulation of suberin-related genes, there is also induction of regulatory and meristematic genes, whose predicted activities agree with the increased number of phellem layers found in the cork oak sample. Further transcript profiling among different cork oak tissues and conditions suggests that cork and wood share many regulatory mechanisms, probably reflecting similar ontogeny. Moreover, the analysis of transcripts accumulation during the cork growth season showed that most regulatory genes are upregulated early in the season when the cork cambium becomes active. Altogether our work provides the first transcriptome comparison between cork oak and holm oak outer bark, which unveils new regulatory candidate genes of phellem development.

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“…[2,3] Suberin is a complex polyester based on glycerol and long-chain alpha, omega-diacids and omega-hidroxyacids whose structure at the macromolecular level remain largely unknown. [4] Lignin is a guaiacyl lignin very similar to the lignin of wood from softwoods. The polysaccharides are cellulose and hemicelluloses, with the cellulose accounting for about 10% of total cork weight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%