There are more than one half-million published studies of cellulose, lignocellulose, or plant cell walls and the techniques employed range in scale from the submicroscopic to hectare scale. As shown by the decades-long debates over cellulose ‘structure’ or even limited to its crystalline structure, a fundamental problem is the evolution and frequent acceptance of models, which are derived from interpretation of data sets resulting from a single technique. Such models might be based upon crystallographic, enzymatic, spectroscopic, computational modeling, or other data, but a common thread is a tendency to over-interpret and extrapolate the limited data acquired by the investigators and ignore the wealth of data generated by studies using other techniques. Ideally, a single model consistent with all valid data should be the goal.<br/><br/>A related problem is the use of treatments that alter the material for the sake of acquiring ‘better’ data. Better data for what? Are the models that we derive from this ‘better data’ helpful in understanding the problems that we seek to understand? Here we shall address these questions and look at an alternative approach to models that is attracting considerable attention in areas like molecular biology and its sub-disciplines like proteomics and bioinformatics.<br/><br/>As an alternative or supplement, we think that the concept of an ‘interactome’ has merit for the study of plant cells and their cell walls. The goal, probably never fully realized, for any interactome is a complete description of all the interactions within a cell, or some limited area of that cell, such as the primary and secondary walls in woody plants and other dicots or specific cell types in monocots like grasses. At the cellular level, these tissues have many of the properties associated with composite materials. Any realistic, predictive model of cell/system properties must consider the spatial and energetic effects that arise from the interplay between proximate chemically distinct molecules with them.

Evolving models of lignocellulose structure: Do we need a plant cell wall interactome

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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