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The Edinburgh Cell Wall Group, led by Professor Stephen Fry, studies plant cell walls. These are a metabolically active and structurally significant compartment of the plant cell. Knowledge of this area is valuable for our fundamental understanding of plant physiology and evolution, but also crucial to developing and improving the properties of plant-based products including the utilisation of biomass for biofuels.
The ECWG has developed unique range of tools and reagents for studying plant cell walls. Many of these are radiolabelled or
fluorescently labelled and can be used for development of assays and high-throughput screens for identifying and measuring plant, fungal and bacterial enzymes that target the plant cell wall.
These include
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![]() In-situ detection of hetero-trans-β-glucanase (HTG) in Equisetum fluviatileae stem using XXXG-SR as acceptor susbtrate - photo: L Franková 2021 |
![]() Trans-β-mannanase action in the basal node (BN) and multicellular meristematic apex (MA) of axillary whorl of branchlets (WB) of Chara vulgaris (with Man6-SR as acceptor susbtrate; Franková & Fry 2021 Plant J., 108: 5-6). |
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![]() Mixture of toluidine blue-labelled oligoxyloglucan. Individual oligosaccharides are suitable for assaying β-galactosidase and α-xylosidase activities by TLC |
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Fluorescent dot-blot showing cellulose:xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (CXE) activity on a test paper impregnated with XXXG-SR (Franková 2020) |
High-throughput screens for XET inhibitors on test strata impregnated with xyloglucan (donor) followed by fluorescently-tagged XXXG (acceptor) (Franková & Fry, unpublished) |