Plant cell walls: from evolutionary genomics to novel breeding tools

Summary

Plant cell walls are biological structures that surround every plant cell. As such, they are valuable research targets because of both their biological role (tensile strength and physical barrier) and industrial applications (provision of energy and raw materials). By looking at the long-term goal of creating plants that can deliver bioresources for a bio-based economy, this thesis studied plant cell walls from both a fundamental and applied perspective. The research conducted discovered new insights on how the genes that determine how cell walls look like in different plants have evolved. Moreover, these insights have been used to develop novel tools to speed up the tailoring of plant cell wall characteristics to specific needs for a bio-based economy. Overall, the results of this thesis have significantly advanced our scientific knowledge on plant cell walls, and have delivered precious tools to make it easier to valorize plant bioresources in a bio-based economy.