Center for Lignocellulose Structure and Formation

Our Research

Lignocellulose illustrationThe CLSF is focused on developing a detailed understanding of lignocellulose, the main structural material in plants, from cellulose synthesis and fibril formation to a mature plant cell wall, forming a foundation for significant advancement in sustainable energy and materials.

Research Plan and Direction

CLSF research is directed at answering key questions in plant biology including how the cellulose synthase complex produces the cellulose microfibril, identification of the physicochemical interactions among cell wall components that lead to their hierarchical assembly, and how macro-scale properties of cell walls emerge from the molecular and nano-scale properties and interactions of cell wall components.

Our Research Themes

  1. Understand cellulose synthesis
  2. Understand lignocellulose assembly
  3. Understand the relationship between nano-scale and macro-scale properties.

More information

Publications

  1. Park YB, Cosgrove DJ (2012) Changes in cell wall biomechanical properties in the xyloglucan-deficient xxt1/xxt2 mutant of Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology 158: 465-475.
  2. Gu J, Catchmark JM (2012) Impact of hemicelluloses and pectin on sphere-like bacterial cellulose assembly. Carbohydrate Polymers 88: 547-557.
  3. Kittle JD, Wang C, Qian C, Zhang Y, Zhang M, Roman M, Morris JR, Moore RB, Esker AE (2012) Ultrathin chitin films for nanocomposites and biosensors. Biomacromolecules, accepted.
  4. Yi H, Singh A, Yingling YG (2012) X3DBio1: A Visual Analysis Tool for Biomolecular Structure Exploration. Proc, SPIE Visualization and Data Analysis 8294: 82940S-1---82940S-8.
  5. Li S, Lei L, Somerville CR, Gu Y (2012) Cellulose synthase interactive protein 1 (CSI1) links microtubules and cellulose synthase complexes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109: 185-190.
  6. Bashline L, Du J, Gu Y (2011) The trafficking and behavior of cellulose synthase and a glimpse of potential cellulose synthesis regulators. Frontiers in Biology 6: 377-383.
  7. Watts HD, Mohamed MN, Kubicki JD (2011) Evaluation of potential reaction mechanisms leading to the formation of coniferyl alcohol α-linkages in lignin: a density functional theory study. Phys Chem Chem Phys 13: 20974-85.
  8. Kittle JD, Du X, Jiang F, Qian C, Heinze T, et al. (2011) Equilibrium water contents of cellulose films determined via solvent exchange and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. Biomacromolecules 12: 2881-2887.
  9. Cheng G, Liu Z, Murton JK, Jablin M, Dubey M, et al. (2011) Neutron reflectometry and QCM-D study of the interaction of cellulases with films of amorphous cellulose. Biomacromolecules 12: 2216-2224.
  10. Smirnov AI (2011) EPR Studies of Nano Materials. In: Misra SK, editor. Multifrequency Electron Paramagnetic Resonance: Theory and Applications. NY: Wiley. pp. 825-843.
  11. Barnette AL, Bradley LC, Veres BD, Schreiner EP, Park YB, et al. (2011) Selective detection of crystalline cellulose in plant cell walls with sum-frequency-generation (SFG) vibration spectroscopy. Biomacromolecules 12: 2434-2439.
  12. Watts HD, Mohamed MN, Kubicki JD (2011) Comparison of multistandard and TMS-standard calculated NMR shifts for coniferyl alcohol and application of the multistandard method to lignin dimers. J Phys Chem B 115: 1958-1970.
  13. Iyer PR, Catchmark J, Brown NR, Tien M (2011) Biochemical localization of a protein involved in synthesis of Gluconacetobacter hansenii cellulose. Cellulose 18: 739-747.
  14. Cosgrove DJ (2011) Measuring In Vitro Extensibility of Growing Plant Cell Walls. Plant Cell Wall: Methods and Protocols 715: 291-303.
  15. Iyer PR, Geib SM, Catchmark J, Kao TH, Tien M (2010) Genome sequence of a cellulose-producing bacterium, Gluconacetobacter hansenii ATCC 23769. J Bacteriol 192: 4256-4257.
  16. Voinov MA, Smirnov AI (2010) Spin Labels and Spin Probes for Measurements of Local pH and Electrostatics by EPR. In: Chechik V, editor. Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry. pp. 71-106.
  17. Mohamed MN, Watts HD, Guo J, Catchmark JM, Kubicki JD (2010) MP2, density functional theory, and molecular mechanical calculations of C-H-π and hydrogen bond interactions in a cellulose-binding module-cellulose model system. Carbohydr Res 345: 1741-1751.