Nature Communications (Oct 2018)

Interactions between callose and cellulose revealed through the analysis of biopolymer mixtures

  • Radwa H. Abou-Saleh,
  • Mercedes C. Hernandez-Gomez,
  • Sam Amsbury,
  • Candelas Paniagua,
  • Matthieu Bourdon,
  • Shunsuke Miyashima,
  • Ykä Helariutta,
  • Martin Fuller,
  • Tatiana Budtova,
  • Simon D. Connell,
  • Michael E. Ries,
  • Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06820-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Despite their importance in plant development and defence the properties of (1,3)-β-glucan remain largely unknown. Here, the authors find that addition of (1,3)-β-glucans increases the flexibility of cellulose and its resilience to high strain, an effect originating in molecular level interactions.