Polysaccharide-rich plant biomass is one of the major renewable sources of carbon. Plant biomass consists mainly of the cell wall. Plant cell walls are made of a diverse set of polysaccharides, including cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, and glycoprotein with a complex polymeric matrix of lignin. Studying the biological roles of plant polysaccharides, polymer abundance and interactions, and their structural complexity enables a better understanding of plant growth, development, production of biomass, fuels, materials, chemicals and crop yield.
The demand for products derived from plant biomass is increasing at a rapid rate. The global future will largely rely on the successful transition to a green chemistry paradigm based on sustainable resources that have low-environmental impact with renewable and CO
2 neutral characteristics. Plant biomass is an alternative bio-resource and the most abundant one on Earth with ~160 billion tonnes produced by plants each year. Plant biomass derivates have the potential to displace petroleum-based fuels and plastics. However, despite the increasing demand for biomass and biomass-derived products, there remains unresolved gaps in our knowledge and much is left to be explored to provide a foundation to improve crops, optimize processing pipelines, and develop new biomaterials.
We invite perspectives, original research articles, and reviews related to the use of plant cell wall polysaccharides for sustainable production of bioenergy and renewable biomaterials. More information about manuscript types may be found
here . While this Research Topic welcomes contributions from interdisciplinary fields including biological science, chemistry, engineering, and materials science, the topics of special interest are:
• Cell wall polysaccharides and their role in plant growth and development
• Synthesis and characterization of bio-derived chemicals, polymers, and materials for bioplastic, biocomposites, and fuels.
• Genome editing, genetic engineering and breeding to improve feedstock productivity for biofuel, chemicals and biomaterials in bioenergy crops
• Emerging concepts of plant cell wall modelling to produce biofuels and biomaterial
• Biorefinery of biomass feedstocks for the production of energy and materials
Please note studies about starches are out of the scope of this Research Topic