Plant cell wall enzymatic deconstruction: Bridging the gap between micro and nano scales.

Abstract

Understanding lignocellulosic biomass resistance to enzymatic deconstruction is crucial for its sustainable conversion into bioproducts. Despite scientific advances, quantitative morphological analysis of plant deconstruction at cell and tissue scales remains under-explored. In this study, an original pipeline is devised, involving four-dimensional (space + time) fluorescence confocal imaging, and a novel computational tool, to track and quantify deconstruction at cell and tissue scales. By applying this pipeline to poplar wood, dynamics of cellular parameters was computed and cellulose conversion during enzymatic deconstruction was measured. Results showed that enzymatic deconstruction predominantly impacts cell wall volume rather than surface area. Additionally, a negative correlation was observed between pre-hydrolysis compactness measures and volumetric cell wall deconstruction rate, whose strength was modulated by enzymatic activity. Results also revealed a strong positive correlation between average volumetric cell wall deconstruction rate and cellulose conversion rate. These findings link key deconstruction parameters across nano and micro scales.

Code and data availability

The paper's WallTrack computational pipeline (used to track and quantify 4D confocal imaging of poplar cell wall deconstruction) is publicly available on the authors' FARE laboratory GitLab repository. The underlying imaging/phenotype data are not publicly deposited; the authors state data will be made available on.