cinnamate/zea mays

Primary cell walls of grasses and cereals contain arabinoxylans with esterified ferulate side chains, which are proposed to cross-link the polysaccharides during maturation by undergoing oxidative coupling. However, the mechanisms and control of arabinoxylan cross-linking in vivo are unclear.

Maize (Zea mays L.) cell cultures incorporated radioactivity from [14C]cinnamate into hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA derivatives and then into polysaccharide-bound feruloyl residues. Within 5-20 min, the CoA pool had lost its 14C by turnover and little or no further incorporation into polysaccharides then

Grass lignins can contain up to 10% to 15% by weight of p-coumaric esters. This acylation is performed on monolignols under the catalysis of p-coumaroyl-coenzyme A monolignol transferase (PMT). To study the impact of p-coumaroylation on lignification, we first introduced the Brachypodium distachyon