Uncovering the molecular components required for biosynthesising essential apiose-containing cell wall polymers

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Berit Ebert
• Subject Area: Plant Cell and Developmental Biology ; Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 571483527

Plant cell walls are essential for plant growth and development and supply key raw materials for many industrial applications and products. Pectins especially have common uses in food production and developing applications in biomedicine. Nevertheless, our understanding of how specific, essential pectins are made remains limited. Especially complex and unique cell wall polymers such as pectic rhamnogalacturonan II (RG II) and apiogalacturonan have been difficult to study since mutations in pectin-related genes are often lethal. This is why the production of these polymers remains poorly understood and most of the molecular players synthesising them remain unknown. This project aims to close this knowledge gap and uncover the molecular components required for biosynthesising the pectic polymers RG II and apiogalacturonan, since they both contain the rare cell wall sugar apiose. We will leverage our platform for the sensitive and high-throughput biochemical characterization of transport activities, probe the interactome of glycan biosynthesising proteins to define new players, then apply molecular genetics and live cell imaging to outline a framework for how these pectins are made. This research will substantially further our understanding of pectin biosynthesis and how plants produce cell walls, relevant for food, feed, medicine, construction and fuel.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants