Cellulose: Molecular and Structural Biology: Selected Articles on the Synthesis, Structure, and Appl

Chapter 1: Many Paths up the Mountain: Tracking the Evolution of Cellulose Biosynthesis, David R. Nobles, Jr. and R. Malcolm Brown, Jr. 1. Introduction 2. Sequence Comparisons 3. Eukaryotic Cellulose Synthases 3.1. The Case for a Cyanobacterial Origin of Plant Cellulose Synthases 3.2. Lateral Transfer of Cellulose Synthase in the Urochordates 3.3. The Cellulose Synthase of Dictyostelium Discoideum 4. Bacterial Gene Clusters 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Characterized Gene Clusters 5. Novel Gene Clusters 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Group III 5.3. Group IV 6. Concluding Remarks References Chapter 2: Evolution of the Cellulose Synthase (CesA) Gene Family: Insights from Green Algae and Seedless Plants, Alison W. Roberts and Eric Roberts 1. Overview 2. The Prokaryotic Ancestry of Eukaryotic CesAs 3. Green Algal CesAs and the Evolution of Terminal Complexes 4. CesA Diversification and the Evolution of Land Plants 4.1. Evolution of Tracheary Elements 4.2. Functional Specialization of CesA Proteins 4.3. Tip-growth and the function of Cellulose Synthase-like type D (CslD) Genes 4.4. CesA and CslD genes of the moss Physcomitrella patens 5. Analysis of CesA Function by Targetted Transformation in P. patens Acknowledgements References Chapter 3: The Cellulose Synthase Superfamily, Heather L. Youngs, Thorsten Hamann, Erin Osborne and Chris Somerville 1. Introduction 2. Identification of Cellulose Synthase 3. Toward a functional analysis of cellulose synthase 4. Identification of the cellulose synthase-like genes Acknowledgements References Chapter 4: Cellulose Synthesis in the Arabidopsis Secondary Cell Wall, Neil G. Taylor and Simon R. Turner. 1. Introduction 2. irx mutant isolation and characterisation 3. Three CesAs are required for secondary cell wall cellulose synthesis 4. Function of multiple CesA proteins during cellulose synthesis 5. Localisation of CesA proteins 6. irx2 is an allele of Korrigan 7. Alternative approaches to studying cellulose synthesis in the secondary cell wall 8. Conclusions References Chapter 5: From Cellulose to Mechanical Strength: Relationship of the Cellulose Synthase Genes to Dry Matter Accumulation in Maize, Roberto Barreiro and Kanwarpal S. Dhugga 1. Introduction 2. Role of Cellulose in Stalk Strength 3. Carbon Flux through Cellulose Synthase 4. Alteration of Cellulose Formation in Plants 5. Mass Action and Metabolic Control 6. The Cellulose Synthase Gene Family 7. Expression Analysis of the ZmCesA gene family 8. Future Transgeneic Work Rationale 9. Summary Bibliography Chapter 6: Cellulose Biosynthesis in Forest Trees, Kristina Blomqvist, Soraya Djerbi, Henrik Aspeborg, and Tuula T. Teeri 1. The Properties of Wood 1.1. Formation of Wood Cells 1.2. Reaction Wood 2. Cellulose Synthesis 2.1. Rosettes; the Machinery of Cellulose Synthesis 2.2. CesA and Csl 2.3. Other Enzymes and Proteins involved in Cellulose Synthesis 2.4. Other Metabolic Processes involved in Cell Wall Biosynthesis 3. In vitro Cellulose Synthesis Acknowledgements References Chapter 7: Cellulose Biosynthesis in Enterobacteriaceae, Ute Römling 1. Introduction 2. The cellulose biosynthesis operon in Salmonella Typhimurium and Escherichia coli 3. Regulation of the expression of the bcsABZC operon 4. Regulation of cellulose biosynthesis 5. Regulation of csgD expression 6. Function of AdrA 7. Occurrence of the cellulose biosynthesis operon among enterobacterial