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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Plant Science Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #67935
Title: DOES LIGNIN COMPOSITION IMPACT FORAGE CELL-WALL DEGRADABILITY?

Author
item Jung, Hans Joachim
item CHAPPLE, CLINT - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal Dairy Science Supplement
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/15/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: It has been hypothesized that lignin composition affects cell-wall degradability independently of lignin concentration. Identification of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants that are unable to synthesize syringyl-type lignin allowed us to test the hypothesis that lignin composition affects cell-wall degradation. Stems were collected at four stages of maturity from a wild-type and two back-crossed mutant Arabidopsis lines. The experiment was replicated twice. Stems were analyzed for cell-wall composition and 24- and 96-h in vitro cell-wall polysaccharide degradability. Cell-wall composition of the Arabidopsis was very similar to forage legumes such as alfalfa. Cell-wall concentration and lignin content of the cell wall increased with maturity, but did not differ among the genetic lines. Elevated ferulate ester concentration in mutant cell walls (P<0.05) was the only compositional trait that differed among the Arabidopsis lines. Cell-wall polysaccharide degradability did not differ between the wild-type and mutant Arabidopsis lines. Like forage legumes, the potentially degradable fraction of the Arabidopsis cell wall was rapidly degraded. Based on this lignin composition mutant in Arabidopsis, it appears that lignin composition does not influence cell-wall degradability at equivalent levels of lignification.