CD BioSciences is committed to providing our customers with a wide range of specific and sensitive assays for the detection of isolated cell wall components, as well as their various molecular characteristics in vitro. Our dedicated research team is well-positioned to help you accurately characterize the composition and structure of cell wall polymers in 3D networks.

Introduction

Cell walls play multiple roles throughout the life cycle of plants. They are mostly composed of proteoglycans (extensins and arabinogalactan proteins), polysaccharides (cellulose, pectin and hemicelluloses), and in some cells, polyphenols (lignin) and polyesters (suberin and cutin). A thorough investigation of cell wall components is a prerequisite for understanding how polymers affect the physicochemical and biological properties of the wall. However, the complexity of plant cell walls makes their analysis difficult.

In vitro methods are one strategy to characterize and quantify the different components of the cell wall, involving the disruption of molecular bonds between polymers by physical, chemical and/or enzymatic treatments. This approach allows for accurate characterization of the finesse composition, structure and organization of cell wall polymers in complex 3D networks, giving physiologists the opportunity to analyze and understand the interactions between the different components and facilitating cell wall-based industrial applications.

Our Services

Depending on the chemical composition and the number of biomolecules to be characterized, we offer our customers a variety of analytical procedures to characterize multiple components of the plant cell wall.

• UV/Visible spectroscopy
  We provide protein quantification, polysaccharide quantification and lignin quantification by UV/Visible spectroscopy.
• Raman and Infrared spectroscopies
  We offer our clients Raman and Infrared (IR) spectroscopies, and vibrational spectroscopy techniques for identifying complex plant molecules. These two complementary techniques allow the characterization of different polymers by the vibrational transitions of known chemical groups and the vibrational fingerprints of molecules.
• Mass spectrometry (MS)
• Protein fingerprint
  We typically perform MS after peptide separation by electrophoresis or liquid/nano-liquid chromatography. We offer a variety of MS methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF-MS) and electrospray ionization time of flight (ESI-TOF-MS) for the analysis of proteins in plant cell walls.
• Polysaccharide fingerprint
  We offer different types of MS for the determination of structural cell wall carbohydrates, such as MALDI-TOF, ion trap MS (ITMS) with MALDI or ESI and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance MS (FTICR-MS).
• Lignin fingerprint
  We degrade lignin by thermal or chemical treatment and then use MS to analyze the lignin structure of lignin degradation products or whole lignin macromolecules. Alternatively, we offer soft ionization MS techniques (mainly ESI-MS and MALDI-MS) to provide structural characterization and molecular weight distribution of lignin from undegraded macromolecules.

• Chromatographic methods
  We use a variety of chromatographic methods such as liquid chromatography and gas chromatography in combination with a large set of detectors including UV/visible light, pulsed amperometric detection (PAD), fluorescence and/or MS to characterize proteins, polysaccharides and lignin in plant cell walls.
• Immunological methods
  We offer immunological techniques for the identification and quantification of polysaccharides, glycoproteins, and proteins in the plant cell walls.

With many years of service experience in the field of biophysical analysis, CD BioSciences is confident to provide comprehensive analytical services and submit detailed and accurate analytical data to our clients. If you are interested in our services, please contact us directly and we are happy to share with you all our knowledge related to techniques or methods for the analysis of plant cell wall components.

Reference

1. Costa, G.; Plazanet, I. Plant cell wall, a challenge for its characterisation. Advances in biological chemistry. 2016, 6(3):2162-2183.

• Extraction of Plant Cell Wall Components
• In Situ Plant Cell Wall Components Analysis