Locating the production site of glucan in grass cell walls
Thursday, August 23, 2018 - 09:20
in Biology & Nature
Where an item is manufactured tells you a lot about it. Is it made by an assembly line or handcrafted one at a time? To learn more about glucose, the sugary feedstock of biofuel refineries, scientists want to know where a polymer of glucose, mixed-linkage glucan (MLG), resides in grasses as grass species are a major potential renewable biomass feedstock. Scientists from the center demonstrated that MLG is present primarily in the Golgi apparatus (flattened, stacked pouches near the cell's nucleus). These findings offer new insight and new targets to maximize MLG production.