Yoshihisa Yoshimi has published a paper in Nature Communications, 'Glucomannan engineering highlights roles of galactosyl modification in fine-tuning cellulose-glucomannan interaction in Arabidopsis cell walls' with colleagues from the Dupree Lab and the Universities of Warwick, Jagiellonian and Saitama.
The paper shows that 'fine-tuning of galactosyl modification on glucomannans is achieved by the differing acceptor recognition of mannan α-galactosyltransferases (MAGTs). Biochemical analysis and C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of Arabidopsis with cell wall glucomannan engineered by MAGTs reveal that the degree of galactosylation strongly affects the interaction with cellulose. The findings indicate that plants tailor galactosyl modification on glucomannans for constructing an appropriate cell wall architecture, paving the way to convert properties of lignocellulosic biomass for better use.'
Yoshihisa was Broodbank Fellow in the Department and is currently working on the Dupree Lab's ERC advanced grant, EVOCATE. He will leave the Department in March to take up a lectureship at Kindai University, Japan.