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SUMMARY:Melville Mini-symposium: Wood Hemicelluloses: Molecular Structure 
 and Interactions in Woody Tissues - Prof. Francisco Javier Vilaplana Domin
 go\, UNIVERSITETSLEKTOR
DTSTART:20190409T120000Z
DTEND:20190409T125000Z
UID:TALK121714@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lingtao Kong
DESCRIPTION:Wood hemicelluloses are fundamental components of plant second
 ary cell walls\, together with cellulose\, pectins and lignin. Hemicellulo
 ses represent a complex and heterogeneous family of polysaccharides that s
 hare with cellulose a (14) backbone of pentose and hexose building bloc
 ks. However\, unlike cellulose\, hemicelluloses are decorated with a wide 
 pattern of neutral sugar and uronic acid substitutions\, and can be furthe
 r substituted by O-acetyl groups. In softwoods\, acetylated galactoglucoma
 nnan represent the main hemicellulose component\, whereas arabinoglucurono
 xylan is present in lower amounts. In hardwoods\, on the contrary\, it is 
 acetylated glucuronoxylan the most abundant component with minor amounts o
 f acetylated glucomannan. The biological and functional explanation for th
 is compositional and structural diversity of hemicelluloses is still unkno
 wn. The molecular heterogeneity of hemicelluloses modulates the hydration 
 and the intensity of their interactions with cellulose microfibrils and li
 gnin in woody tissues. However\, the interplay amongst cell wall component
 s and their effect on the biomechanical integrity of secondary cell walls 
 are still controversial. In the presentation\, the implications of hemicel
 lulose molecular structure on the secondary cell wall architecture will be
  discussed. We have combined experimental approaches using sequentially ex
 tracted hemicelluloses and their advanced characterization using mass spec
 trometry based glycomic approaches\, their incorporation in bacterial cell
 ulose hydrogels and the study of the biomechanical properties\, and molecu
 lar dynamic (MD) simulations of the interaction of selected mannan and xyl
 an motifs with cellulose microfibril surfaces. 
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre
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