Sensitivity-enhanced solid-state NMR detection of expansin’s target in plant cell walls
Open accessAbstract
Significance: The protein expansin loosens the cell walls of plants for cell growth, but its carbohydrate target of binding has been elusive because of the difficulty of studying the noncrystalline plant cell wall by most structural biology techniques and the trace amount of expansin needed for wall loosening. We have now combined dynamic nuclear polarization sensitivity-enhanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy with 13 C labeling of Arabidopsis thaliana plants and 13 C, 15 N labeling of expansin, to determine that expansin binds cellulose microfibrils to loosen the plant cell wall. The expansin binding site is enriched in the hemicellulose xyloglucan and has a different cellulose structure from bulk cellulose, shedding light on the mechanism of wall loosening.
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AsymPolPOK and other biradicals are small, water-soluble molecules that diffuse through porous cell walls without disrupting their structure.
“AsymPolPOK and other biradicals are small (2–3 nm), water-soluble molecules that diffuse through porous cell walls without disrupting their structure, enabling widespread use in the structural analysis of plant, fungal, algal, and bacterial cell wall materials as well as intact mammalian cells84–90.”
From Distinct echinocandin responses of Candida albicans and Candida auris cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR (2025) · cites this paper as [90]
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Molecular architecture of fungal cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR
Kang, X., Kirui, A., Muszyński, A., Widanage, M. C. D., Chen, A., Azadi, P., Wang, P., Mentink-Vigier, F., & Wang, T. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05199-0 · Cited by 356 · see citing works
Self-citationDickwella Widanage, M. C., Singh, K., Li, J., Yarava, J. R., Scott, F. J., Xu, Y., Gow, N. A. R., Mentink-Vigier, F., Wang, P., Lamoth, F., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-61678-1 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Wang, T., Park, Y. B., Caporini, M. A., Rosay, M., Zhong, L., Cosgrove, D. J., & Hong, M.
- Affiliations
- Iowa State University (US)
- Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802;
- Bruker (United States) (US)
- Bruker Biospin Corporation, Billerica, MA 01821; and
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2013-09-24
- Volume
- 110
- Issue
- 41
- Pages
- 16444-16449
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC3799313
- OpenAlex
- W2065158707
- Cited by
- 234
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 30.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Civil War Book Review (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0001090, DE‐FG02‐, FG02-84ER13179, DEFG0284ER13179)
- Energy Frontier Research Centers
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Polysaccharides and Plant Cell Walls
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced NMR Techniques and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › NMR spectroscopy and applications
- Keywords
- expansin, plant cell wall, cellulose microfibrils, xyloglucan, pectin, dynamic nuclear polarization, spin diffusion, Arabidopsis thaliana, cell wall loosening, polysaccharide binding, molecular dynamics simulation
- MeSH terms
- Binding Sites, Carbon Isotopes, Cell Wall, Cellulose, Glucans, Nitrogen Isotopes, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Plant Proteins, Xylans, Arabidopsis, Microfibrils, Molecular Dynamics Simulation
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