Harnessing lignin evolution for biotechnological applications
Name
1-s2.0-S0958166918300636-main.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
519.17 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
05dcf7da4e6e621d9b4706c5d1b40442
Author(s)
Weng, Jing-Ke
Date Issued
April 2019
Journal
Current Opinion in Biotechnology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Renault, Hugues, Danièle Werck-Reichhart and Jing-Ke Weng. “Harnessing lignin evolution for biotechnological applications.” Current Opinion in Biotechnology 56 (2019): 105-111 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Lignin evolved concomitantly with the rise of vascular plants on planet earth ∼450 million years ago. Several iterations of exploiting ancestral phenylpropanoid metabolism for biopolymers occurred prior to lignin that facilitated early plants’ adaptation to terrestrial environments. The first true lignin was constructed via oxidative coupling of a number of simple phenylpropanoid alcohols to form a sturdy polymer that supports long-distance water transport. This invention has directly contributed to the dominance of vascular plants in the Earth's flora, and has had a profound impact on the establishment of the rich terrestrial ecosystems as we know them today. Within vascular plants, new lignin traits continued to emerge with expanded biological functions pertinent to host fitness under complex environmental niches. Understanding the chemical and biochemical basis for lignin's evolution in diverse plants therefore offers new opportunities and tools for engineering desirable lignin traits in crops with economic significance.
Subjects
Biotechnology
Bioengineering
Biomedical Engineering
MIT Department
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2018.10.011
