Partners

Lignin team of the INRA/AgroParisTech
Joint Research Unit of Biological Chemistry, UMR 206

Catherine Lapierre

For the last 20 years, our team has been producing scientific knowledge on lignins and on their variable structure and organization in cell walls. This research is supported by innovative analytical strategies which revealed the specificities of the lignins of mutant or transgenic plants. Our role is associated with WP2 and WP1 work-packages and will be to evaluate the profile of lignins in transgenic or mutant plants altered in their lignification and produced by the RENEWALL partners. This evaluation will provide novel insights on the relationships of lignification to the saccharification potential.

inra

Our strategies provided quantitative signatures of altered lignin profiles in relation to cell wall properties1 and in angiosperm plants deficient for cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (A)2, caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (B)3 or cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (C)4. We also established that ferulic esters (Fe) acts as nucleation sites for lignification (D) not only in grasses5, but also in other plants6.

  1. Lapierre et al. Structural alterations of lignins in transgenic poplars with depressed CAD or COMT activity have an opposite impact on the efficiency of industrial kraft pulping. Plant Physiol. 1999, 119, (1), 153-163
  2. Jouanin et al., Lignification in transgenic poplars with extremely reduced caffeic acid O-methyltransferase activity. Plant Physiol. 2000, 123, 1363-1373.
  3. Kim et al., Identification of the structure and origin of thioacidolysis marker compounds for cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency in angiosperms. J. Biol. Chem 2002, 277, 47412-47419.
  4. Ralph et al.., Identification of the structure and origin of a thioacidolysis marker compound for ferulic acid incorporation into angiosperm lignins (and an indicator for cinnamoyl CoA reductase deficiency). Plant J. 2008, 53, 368-379.
  5. Jacquet et al. New ether-linked ferulic acid-coniferyl alcohol dimers identified in grass straws. J. Agr. Food Chem 1995, 43, 2746-2751.
  6. Mir Derikvand et al., Redirection of the phenylpropanoid pathway to feruloyl malate in Arabidopsis mutants deficient for cinnamoyl-CoA reductase 1. Planta 2008, 227, 943-56.

Contributors:
Dr Catherine Lapierre, PI
Brigitte Pollet   
Laurent Cézard