Grazing-incidence diffraction reveals cellulose and pectin organization in hydrated plant primary cell wall

Joshua T Del Mundo; Sintu Rongpipi; Hui Yang; Dan Ye; Sarah N Kiemle; Stephanie L Moffitt; Charles L Troxel; Michael F Toney; Chenhui Zhu; James D Kubicki; Daniel J Cosgrove; Esther W Gomez; Enrique D Gomez

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-32505-8

Grazing-incidence diffraction reveals cellulose and pectin organization in hydrated plant primary cell wall

Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 3;13(1):5421. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32505-8.

Authors

Joshua T Del Mundo¹, Sintu Rongpipi¹, Hui Yang², Dan Ye¹, Sarah N Kiemle², Stephanie L Moffitt³, Charles L Troxel³, Michael F Toney⁴, Chenhui Zhu⁵, James D Kubicki⁶, Daniel J Cosgrove², Esther W Gomez^{7

8}, Enrique D Gomez^{9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
² Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
³ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
⁵ Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁶ Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. ewg10@psu.edu.
⁸ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. ewg10@psu.edu.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. edg12@psu.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. edg12@psu.edu.
¹¹ Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. edg12@psu.edu.

Abstract

The primary cell wall is highly hydrated in its native state, yet many structural studies have been conducted on dried samples. Here, we use grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) with a humidity chamber, which enhances scattering and the signal-to-noise ratio while keeping outer onion epidermal peels hydrated, to examine cell wall properties. GIWAXS of hydrated and dried onion reveals that the cellulose ([Formula: see text]) lattice spacing decreases slightly upon drying, while the (200) lattice parameters are unchanged. Additionally, the ([Formula: see text]) diffraction intensity increases relative to (200). Density functional theory models of hydrated and dry cellulose microfibrils corroborate changes in crystalline properties upon drying. GIWAXS also reveals a peak that we attribute to pectin chain aggregation. We speculate that dehydration perturbs the hydrogen bonding network within cellulose crystals and collapses the pectin network without affecting the lateral distribution of pectin chain aggregates.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Cell Membrane
Cell Wall / chemistry
Cellulose* / chemistry
Incidence
Pectins* / chemistry
Plants
X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

Cellulose
Pectins