About this Research Topic

Background

Plant cell walls are complex structures fulfilling a variety of functions throughout a plant's life. They maintain the plant's structural integrity by resisting hydrostatic pressure, and at the same time, provide flexibility to support cell growth and division and a pathological and environmental barrier that defends against stress. Cell walls are therefore recalcitrant towards deconstruction by chemicals, enzymes, and/or microbes, which is a major obstacle for many approaches to processing plant material.

An enhanced understanding of the complex interplay of the different cell wall compounds and their contributions to the recalcitrance will lead to more sophisticated strategies to utilize plant biomass in its conversion into materials, chemicals, and fuels.

This Research Topic aims to collate recent findings which help achieve a deeper understanding of cell wall recalcitrance in plants, connecting research on the role of chemical compounds and structural features with the identification of responsible genes. We hope to unite novel perspectives and methodologies elucidating the mechanisms behind cell wall recalcitrance. We therefore invite all article types covering:

• Chemical composition and structure of plant cell walls and their relation to cell wall recalcitrance;
• Novel techniques and methods for analyzing cell wall recalcitrance;
• Genetic strategies to ease cell wall disintegration in pretreatment and fractionation processes;
• Adapted strategies to overcome cell wall recalcitrance in biomass processing;
• Studies towards modeling and prediction.

Keywords: cell wall, recalcitrance, biofuel, biomass processing, biomass

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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