Tag Archive for: fundamental research

A so-called photobioreactor with microalgal content, in the laboratories of Christiane Funk and Martin Plöhn, both Bio4Energy. Photo by courtesy of Plöhn and Funk.

Researchers to Map Composition of Green Algae, Pave Way for Biotechnology Breakthroughs

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Bio4Energy’s research team dedicated to creating applications from green algae have won funds to investigate the composition of cell walls in microalgae. These are microscopic algae that are not visible to the unaided eye, used to produce algal biomass for use in biotechnology applications.

Christiane Funk and students at Umeå University, Sweden hope to develop much needed information on the mechanisms that govern buildup and breakdown of the cell wall in these Chlorophyta algae, with the aim of allowing researchers worldwide more easily to design biotechnology applications that are cost and energy efficient.

Last week, national funder Swedish Research Council – VR announced its decision to support a four-year project.

The researchers aim to find out which enzymes are involved in making the cell wall mouldable and the way in which this plasticity enables – or could enable – the green algae to cope with environmental stressors. They also aim to map the transport of carbon, which is known to fluctuate, inside the cell.

With this knowledge in hand, they want to look into ways to manipulate the cell wall for better outcomes in the design of biotechnology applications.

“This proposal aims to address a critical gap in research, by investigating the biosynthesis and modification of the cell wall of Chlorophyta microalgae. We will gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the microalgal cell wall, its plasticity and perception of the environment”.

“Despite their promise as a sustainable feedstock for biotechnological applications, the use of microalgae has been hindered by high monetary and energy costs associated with the processing steps that follow cultivation, particularly the harvesting of algal biomass and extraction of valuable compounds”, Funk and colleagues wrote in their project application;

“This proposal aims to address this critical gap in research, by investigating the biosynthesis and modification of the cell wall of Chlorophyta microalgae. We will gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the microalgal cell wall, its plasticity and perception of the environment”.

Over the last decade, Bio4Energy’s research teams studying microalgae have worked diligently to lay a foundation for production, scale up and demonstration of algal biomass for use in consumer products and as an agent in water purification in industrial facilities.

The two teams focus on green and blue-green microalgae, respectively. Francesco Gentili and colleagues, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, run development facilities in collaboration with regional energy utility Umeå Energi, at Dåva just off Umeå, in northern Sweden.

Project title: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall – Advancing Microalgal Biotechnology through Cell Wall Research

Project leader: Christiane Funk, Bio4Energy Biopolymers and Biochemical Conversion Technologies – Affiliation with Umeå University

Duration: 2025 – 2028

Related projects

Revitalising forest waste into microalgal and bacterial cellulose membranes with tailored properties for sustainable food packaging, Green Tech – Bio4Energy

Circular and sustainable production of bioplastics with the help of photosynthetic microorganisms – Proof of concept – Bio4Energy

Waste2Plastic – Production of bioplastic from algal biomass generated from wastewater – Bio4Energy

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Microalgae that Thrive in Cold Climate Clean Wastewater, Give Biomass for Renewable Plastics – Bio4Energy

Sweden’s Bioeconomy Arena to Open by Early 2025: Bio4Energy Researchers Stopped by – Bio4Energy

Breakthrough Innovation: Hydrogels from Norwegian Kelp to Be Commercialised – Bio4Energy

LACCASE lignin encoding in plants could be used to make them resilient to drought and strong winds. Photos by Stockholm University affiliates.Stockholm University/Edouard Pesquet

Plants Adapt their Lignin Using Chemical ‘Encoding’ Enzymes, New Report Suggests

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Bio4Energy Associated Member Edouard Pesquet, previously with Umeå University, is part of a group of internationally leading scientists on fundamental research on the plant polymer lignin. Pesquet was part of the organisation team that started the international conference Lignin in 2014. Because of his experience with Bio4Energy at Umeå, Sweden and the support he gained during his time here—becoming a Gunnar Öquist Fellow—Pesquet has continued being part of, and publishing with, the Bio4Energy Research Environment. 

Stockholm, 1 December 2022

Plants “encode” specific chemistries of their lignin polymer substance to grow tall and be resilient. To do so, each plant cell uses different combinations of a specific type of enzyme, a new report suggests.

The results can be used both in agriculture and in forestry for selecting plants according to their chemistry, for them to resist altered conditions brought about by climate change, according to a press release from Stockholm University (SU).

The plant polymer lignin is an important carbon sink for the environment since it stores about one third of total carbon on the planet. It allows plants to hydrate and reach heights of up to 100 metres.

At the cell level, specific lignin chemistries adjust a plant’s mechanical strength to support growth and survival.

Bio4Energy scientists at SU recently demonstrated that lignin has a chemical “code” that is adapted at the cell level to fulfill different roles in plants. They way in which cells “encode” the lignin chemistry of a plant, however, remained unknown.

The researchers; led by Edouard Pesquet, associate professor in molecular plant physiology and senior author of the study; show that a type of enzymes called LACCASEs are used by each cell to adjust their lignin chemical “code”, in order to resist stresses such as drought or strong winds.

The study finally shows that lignin is spatially controlled at the nanometre level in each plant cell.

“The control of lignin chemistry at the cell level is ultimately the mechanism enabling plants to grow, hydrate and resist climate change stresses. These results finally demonstrate how lignin chemistry is controlled and open great possibilities to select plants upon their lignin ‘code’ to improve crops and trees’ resistance to water availability problems”, Pesquet said.

Text by Amanda Gonzalez Bengtsson, with editing by Anna Strom

Contact

Edouard Pesquet, Stockholm University — Bio4Energy Associated Member, Bio4Energy Forest-based Feedstocks and formerly with Umeå University and Umeå Plant Science Centre

Scientific article

Different combinations of laccase paralogs non-redundantly control the lignin amount and composition of specific cell types and cell wall layers in Arabidopsis, by Blaschek et al., is published in the journal The Plant Cell November 2022.

Scientist Edouard Pesquet and team have discovered a chemical "code" for the plant polymer lignin. Photos by courtesy of Edouard Pesquet and team.Stockholm University

Polymer Lignin May Be Modified for Drought Resistance in Plants

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Bio4Energy Associated Member Edouard Pesquet, previously with Umeå University, is part of a group of internationally leading scientists on fundamental research on the plant polymer lignin. Pesquet was part of the organisation team that started the international conference Lignin in 2014. Because of his experience with Bio4Energy at Umeå, Sweden and the support he gained during his time here—becoming a Gunnar Öquist Fellow—Pesquet has continued being part of, and publishing with, the Bio4Energy Research Environment. 

Stockholm, 22 September 2022
A new study shows that we can create and select plants that can better recover from drought without affecting the size of the plant or seed yield, by genetically modifying their lignin chemistry. These results could be used in both agriculture and forestry to tackle future climatic challenges.

Lignin, the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth, represents about 30 percent of the total carbon on the planet. It allows plants to conduct water and stand up right; without lignin, plants cannot grow nor survive.

For long, scientists did not consider that lignin had a “code” like in DNA or proteins. Researchers led by Stockholm University, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP), in collaboration with Stockholm University Department of Material Sciences (MMK) and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT); have now challenged this old paradigm by demonstrating the existence of a lignin chemical “code”.

They showed that each cell uses this code to adjust their lignin to function at its optimum and resist stresses. These results are published in the high-ranking scientific journal The Plant Cell and could be used in both agriculture and forestry to tackle future climatic challenges.

“It takes only one simple chemical change, just one hydrogen atom apart from alcohol to aldehyde to make plants highly resilient to drought in conditions where alcohol-rich plants would all die”, explained Edouard Pesquet, associated professor in molecular plant physiology and senior author of the study.

Interestingly, professor Shinya Kajita from TUAT showed that such large increases of lignin aldehydes can occur naturally in the wild. In the Japanese silk industry for example, mulberry with high lignin aldehyde levels have long been used and loved by silk caterpillars.

“These results [not only] revise our understanding of lignin and plant water conduction, but also open great possibilities to use the lignin ‘code’ to improve crops and trees to face water availability problems. The modification of lignin chemistry at the single cell level, is ultimately the mechanism enabling plants to grow, hydrate and resist climate change stresses”, Pesquet said.

Text by Amanda Gonzalez Bengtsson, with editing by Anna Strom

Contacts
Edouard Pesquet, Stockholm University — Bio4Energy Associated Member, formerly with Bio4Energy at Umeå University and Umeå Plant Science Centre
Aji Mathew, Stockholm University — Formerly with Bio4Energy at Luleå University of Technology

Scientific articles
Plant biomechanics and resilience to environmental changes are controlled by specific lignin chemistries in each vascular cell type and morphotype, by Ménard, Blaschek et al. is published in the journal The Plant Cell September 2022.