Plant cell walls represent the world’s largest renewable carbon resource and, as such, are sources of transport fuels (biofuels), as functional foods to improve human health (NSP- non-starchy polysaccharides as sources of soluble fibre), and as a source of raw materials for industrial processes.  However,  the regulatory mechanisms responsible for their synthesis and assembly are poorly understood.  Our Centre (The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls) is interested in defining the regulatory mechanisms that control molecular, enzymic and cellular processes involved in the synthesis, deposition, re-modelling and depolymerisation of cell wall polysaccharides of cereals and grasses. The talk will give a brief overview of the Centre, focus on the mechanism(s) of assembly of (1,3;1,4)-β- glucans, and then briefly touch on work we are conducting on mechano- sensing molceules at the cell surface andin silico wall modelling.