Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Oct 2015)
Immunological approaches to biomass characterization and utilization
Abstract
Plant biomass is the major renewable feedstock resource for sustainable generation ofalternative transportation fuels to replace fossil carbon-derived fuels. Ligno-cellulosiccell walls are the principal component of plant biomass. Hence, a detailedunderstanding of plant cell wall structure and biosynthesis is an important aspect ofbioenergy research. Cell walls are dynamic in their composition and structure, varyingconsiderably amongst different organs, cells, and developmental stages of plants.Hence tools are needed that are highly efficient and broadly applicable at various levelsof plant biomass based bioenergy research. The use of plant cell wall glycan-directedprobes has seen increasing use over the past decade as an excellent approach for thedetailed characterization of cell walls. Large collections of such probes directed againstmost major cell wall glycans are currently available worldwide. The largest and mostdiverse set of such probes consists of cell wall glycan-directed monoclonal antibodies(McAbs). These McAbs can be used as immunological probes to comprehensivelymonitor the overall presence, extractability, and distribution patterns among cell types ofmost major cell wall glycan epitopes using two mutually complementary immunologicalapproaches, Glycome Profiling (an in vitro platform) and immunolocalization (an in situplatform). Significant progress has been made recently in the overall understanding ofplant biomass structure, composition and modifications with the application of theseimmunological approaches. This review focuses on such advances made in plantbiomass analyses across diverse areas of bioenergy research.
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