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Cell wall hemicelluloses as mobile carbon stores in non-reproductive plant tissues

Hoch, Günter. (2007) Cell wall hemicelluloses as mobile carbon stores in non-reproductive plant tissues. Functional ecology, Vol. 21, H. 5. pp. 823-834.

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Official URL: http://edoc.unibas.ch/dok/A5249772

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Abstract

As essential compounds of plant cell walls, hemicelluloses account for about a quarter of all plant biomass worldwide. In seed cotyledons and endosperm of species from several plant families, hemicelluloses are used as mobile carbon reserves. Whether cell wall hemicelluloses of non-reproductive plant tissue are multifunctional molecules, which can also serve as carbon sources during periods of enhanced carbon demand, is still equivocal. This review summarizes the current understanding of a possible reserve function of hemicelluloses. Although several descriptive and experimental studies suggested at least partial mobility of cell wall polysaccharides in mature, non-reproductive plant tissues, there is still a need for a broad-scale, ecophysiological exploration of the actual nature of hemicelluloses beyond their structural function. The chemical heterogeneity of hemicelluloses may be the major problem for precise quantitative analyses on a large, comparative scale. Because of the abundant distribution of hemicelluloses in plants, the existence of a significant mobile carbohydrate pool in cell walls of non-reproductive organs would shed rather new light on plant carbon relations in a source-sink context. Consequently, a reserve function of hemicelluloses questions the conventional division of cell compounds into structural (i.e. immobile) and non-structural (i.e. mobile) compounds.
Faculties and Departments:05 Faculty of Science > Departement Umweltwissenschaften > Ehemalige Einheiten Umweltwissenschaften > Pflanzenökologie (Körner)
UniBasel Contributors:Hoch, Günter
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:Blackwell Scientific Publ.
ISSN:0269-8463
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
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Last Modified:22 Mar 2012 14:25
Deposited On:22 Mar 2012 13:44

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