This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 143/1/339    most recent pp.106.086405v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Web of Science (10) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D. Agricola Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D.

GENETICS, GENOMICS, AND MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

MAIZEWALL. Database and Developmental Gene Expression Profiling of Cell Wall Biosynthesis and Assembly in Maize ^1,[W]

Université Paul Sabatier, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5546, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France (S.G., H.S.-C., C.D., Y.M., M.P., D.G.); Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Unité de Génétique et d'Amélioration des Plantes Fourragères, 86600 Lusignan, France (S.G., Y.B.); INRA-Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, Unité de Chimie Biologique, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France (C.L.); and Biogemma, Campus Universitaire des Cézeaux, 63170 Aubière, France (A.M.)

	ABSTRACT

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 
An extensive search for maize (Zea mays) genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis and assembly has been performed and 735 sequences have been centralized in a database, MAIZEWALL (http://www.polebio.scsv.ups-tlse.fr/MAIZEWALL). MAIZEWALL contains a bioinformatic analysis for each entry and gene expression data that are accessible via a user-friendly interface. A maize cell wall macroarray composed of a gene-specific tag for each entry was also constructed to monitor global cell wall-related gene expression in different organs and during internode development. By using this macroarray, we identified sets of genes that exhibit organ and internode-stage preferential expression profiles. These data provide a comprehensive fingerprint of cell wall-related gene expression throughout the maize plant. Moreover, an in-depth examination of genes involved in lignin biosynthesis coupled to biochemical and cytological data from different organs and stages of internode development has also been undertaken. These results allow us to trace spatially and developmentally regulated, putative preferential routes of monolignol biosynthesis involving specific gene family members and suggest that, although all of the gene families of the currently accepted monolignol biosynthetic pathway are conserved in maize, there are subtle differences in family size and a high degree of complexity in spatial expression patterns. These differences are in keeping with the diversity of lignified cell types throughout the maize plant.

As a first step in obtaining information about individual cell wall-related gene products and their role in plant growth and development, many genomic approaches have been undertaken. An extensive genomic cell wall database has recently become available in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana; Girke et al., 2004). In this Cell Wall Navigator database, more than 5,000 putative cell wall genes coding for enzymes and structural proteins known to be involved in primary wall metabolism have been assembled. It has been predicted that over 100 protein families with over 1,000 members are involved in cell wall-related processes (Henrissat et al., 2001). As for genomic initiatives of secondary walls, large expressed sequence tag (EST) and microarray datasets have been generated for agronomic and model species, including cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) fibers (Arpat et al., 2004), poplar (Populus tremuloides; Hertzberg et al., 2001) and pine (Pinus sylvestris; Pavy et al., 2005) wood, zinnia (Zinnia elegans) TEs (Demura et al., 2002; Milioni et al., 2002; Pesquet et al., 2005), and Arabidopsis (Zhao et al., 2005). Despite the abundance of genomic information now available, the function of the large majority of these genes is still unknown.

As compared to Arabidopsis and dicotyledonous plants in general, cell wall research in monocots and, in particular, maize (Zea mays) has been much less explored. In the case of primary walls, some isolated examples of the role of cell wall enzymes in relation to specific physiological processes have been reported. For example, the role of cell wall-loosening proteins, including expansins and xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolases (XTHs), in promoting cell elongation during water deficit has been investigated in maize root tips (Wu et al., 1994, 1996). The inventory of cell wall proteins in the elongation zone of maize roots has recently been enlarged through a systematic proteomic approach (Zhu et al., 2006). Interestingly, although many identified proteins are similar to those previously found in dicot primary walls, many maize wall proteins appear to be specific to monocot walls. It should be possible, at least to some extent, to extrapolate information from cell wall genomics in dicot species, but, considering the profound differences in cell wall structure and composition of monocot and dicot cell walls, it is clear that many biosynthetic and remodeling regulatory mechanisms will not be conserved among these phylogenetically distant taxa. The genomic sequence of rice (Oryza sativa) has recently been completed and a comparative approach between cell wall-related gene families in Arabidopsis and rice was undertaken (Yokoyama and Nishitani, 2004). Among the 32 rice cell wall gene families examined, there was a great deal of sequence overlap with cell wall genes in Arabidopsis, but the structural differences in type I (Arabidopsis) versus type II (rice) walls were indeed reflected in certain families. For example, in Arabidopsis pectin is an abundant wall component, whereas in rice it is not. This structural difference was mirrored in the genomic data in that pectin-related gene families were much larger in Arabidopsis than in rice.

At the time of this writing, more than 700,000 ESTs from maize were available. A comparative genomic survey between maize and Arabidopsis revealed that only 60% to 70% of the maize sequences matched with Arabidopsis sequences, indicating a significant proportion of highly diverged or putative maize-specific genes in the maize genome (Brendel et al., 2002). Although global transcriptomic analysis has been undertaken in different physiological contexts, including roots (Poroyko et al., 2005), kernels in response to water stress (Andjelkovic and Thompson, 2006), or organ response to UV light (Casati and Walbot, 2004), an in-depth, systematic characterization of the maize cell wall transcriptome has not been examined (to our knowledge). It should be noted that it is impossible to speak of a maize cell wall per se because the spatial and temporal distribution of wall components is organ, tissue, and cell specific. In general, as stated above, there are several major chemical differences between maize primary cell walls as compared to dicot species (for review, see Carpita and Gibeaut, 1993; Carpita, 1996). Briefly, as is the case in dicots, maize walls contain cellulose microfibrils, but instead of xyloglucan as the main cellulose-tethering molecule, maize is rich in glucuronoarabinoxylans. Maize primary walls are relatively low in pectins, and, based on immunolabeling experiments with antibodies raised against different pectin structures, they appear to be cell type-specific with esterified polygalacturonic acids preferentially localized in vascular tissues, whereas unesterified polygalacturonic acids are mainly found in cortical and parenchyma cells (Knox et al., 1990). The primary walls of maize also contain relatively large amounts of phenolic compounds and little protein in comparison to dicots.

In relation to silage maize digestibility, the lignified secondary cell wall has been extensively studied at the biochemical level (Barrière et al., 2003). However, despite the importance of lignin content and structure in determining forage digestibility, biochemical and molecular regulation of the lignin biosynthetic pathway has been virtually unexplored in maize. That said, expression of a few key genes, including cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR; Pichon et al., 1998), cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD; Halpin et al., 1998), and caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT; Capellades et al., 1996), have been spatially and temporally correlated to lignifying tissues. Beyond correlative gene expression data, the function of only two genes, COMT and CAD, has been unambiguously demonstrated (Vignols et al., 1995; Halpin et al., 1998). A well-characterized, naturally occurring mutant, brown midrib 3 (bm3), is mutated in the COMT gene, resulting in less lignin, a decrease in syringyl (S) units, and improved digestibility (Vignols et al., 1995). COMT maize antisense lines were also generated and have a similar, yet less severe, phenotype (Piquemal et al., 2002; He et al., 2003). Similarly, the bm1 mutant, characterized by altered lignin content and composition, is severely affected in CAD expression (Halpin et al., 1998).

Two specific facts concerning lignification in maize should also be pointed out. First, maize lignin contains relatively high amounts of hydroxycinnamyl (H) units in addition to the guaiacyl (G) and S units typically found in dicotyledonous angiosperms (Lapierre, 1993). This is also the case in most cereals (Lapierre, 1993). Second, maize organs have a wide diversity of lignified cell types. For example, maize internodes are characterized not only by sclerenchyma fibers (located both in the subepidermal cell layers and in close association with vascular bundles) and xylem vessel elements, but also lignified parenchyma cells that represent a very high proportion of the total lignified surface area in older tissues (M. Pichon, unpublished data). Until now, to our knowledge, data have not been made available to integrate knowledge of the specifics of cell wall composition in relation to gene expression in maize.

In this article, we provide a user-friendly, maize cell wall database, MAIZEWALL, containing 735 accessions associated directly or indirectly with primary and secondary wall metabolism. MAIZEWALL is composed of maize homologs resulting from (1) an extensive cell wall-related keyword and BLAST search based on existing knowledge of cell walls in other species; and (2) a BLAST search with ESTs derived from secondary wall-forming in vitro TEs from zinnia (Pesquet et al., 2005). A complete bioinformatic analysis of each gene is provided. A maize cell wall macroarray consisting of gene-specific tags (GSTs), each corresponding to the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) per gene, was constructed. This study provides an organ-specific fingerprint of cell wall-related gene expression in maize. Finally, an in-depth transcriptome analysis of the gene families encoding enzymes of the lignin biosynthetic pathway allowed us to identify putative preferential routes for lignin biosynthesis in different organs and throughout internode development in maize.

	RESULTS

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 

MAIZEWALL: A Bioinformatic and Gene Expression Database of Cell Wall Genes in Maize

An overview of the strategy used to construct the cell wall gene catalog found in MAIZEWALL is illustrated in Figure 1 . First, a cell wall-related keyword list of nearly 100 words was established based on current knowledge of cell wall synthesis and assembly genes in plants. When available, maize sequences with the appropriate keyword annotation were retrieved from public databases, or, if not, sequences from other plant species were subsequently used as bait to identify the most closely related maize sequences. In this search, we also included genes involved in closely related metabolism (i.e. general phenylpropanoid and shikimic acid pathways) and those controlling vascular patterning that have been identified by the characterization of Arabidopsis mutants (for review, see Scarpella and Meijer, 2004). Second, maize sequences were retrieved based on sequence similarities with zinnia genes expressed during in vitro secondary wall formation (Pesquet et al., 2005). All sequences were then BLASTed against the unannotated maize GénoPlanteInfo (GPI) contig database (Samson et al., 2003) to obtain the corresponding maize contigs. Only contigs with the expected keyword annotation when BLASTed against the public protein databases (SWALL and nonredundant [NR]) were retained. Based on these criteria, 735 contigs were selected as entries for MAIZEWALL (http://www.polebio.scsv.ups-tlse.fr/MAIZEWALL). The 735 contigs belong to 174 putative gene functions, which were further classified into 19 functional categories. The complete cell wall catalog, along with the number of contigs identified for each putative gene function, is found in Supplemental Table S1.

View larger version (10K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 1. Schematic view of the strategy and content of the cell wall gene catalog found in MAIZEWALL.

View larger version (19K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 2. Structure of the MAIZEWALL database. Each box represents a different Web page. Arrows indicate links between pages.

To identify a transcriptional fingerprint of cell wall gene expression in different organs, we compared the global transcript profiles in roots, leaves, and young stems of plants at the four- to five-leaf stage. We first examined the most highly expressed genes, as judged by hybridization signal intensity in each organ (Supplemental Table S2). Data expressed in this manner provide a snapshot of the most highly active metabolic pathways for each organ. Interestingly, when comparing the 30 most highly expressed genes, there is a high degree of overlap among organs (more than one-half), suggesting that the metabolic demands are similar throughout the young maize plant. Not surprisingly, many fall into functional categories related to polysaccharide synthesis. For example, among the 14 cellulose synthase genes spotted on the array, only one contig (QBS7b05.x.g.2.1) is highly expressed in all organs. Along with this cellulose synthase gene, two of the 11 spotted Suc synthase genes are also among the most highly expressed genes, regardless of organ location. These results suggest that the same actors are likely to be important in cellulose synthesis during early maize development. As for hemicelluloses, among the four UDP-Glc-6-dehydrogenase genes, again the same two genes are highly expressed in all organs of young maize plants. These genes encode central enzymes of hemicellulose biosynthesis and appear to be essential for cell wall formation in young organs. Interestingly, some conspicuous differences were observed among the sugar nucleotide-converting enzymes. GDP-Man-4,6-dehydratase (mur4) and UDP-D-Xyl-4-epimerase (mur1) were among the most highly expressed genes uniquely in the aerial portions of the plant (leaves and young stems).

As a further step toward understanding cell wall gene function, we then searched for genes that exhibited differential expression profiles among organs at the four- to five-leaf stage. A gene was considered differentially expressed when its signal intensity was twice that of one or both of the other two organs examined. Of the 651 GSTs spotted on the array, 180 were not expressed in any organ at this stage of development under our hybridization conditions. Among the remaining 471, 43 were differentially expressed (Table I ). Seven genes were preferentially expressed uniquely in young stems and three genes only in roots. Interestingly, there were no cell wall genes exhibiting exclusively leaf-preferential expression. Among the seven genes exhibiting young stem-preferential expression profiles, two of them encoded XTH and three cell wall proteins: a Gly-rich protein (GRP) and two Pro-rich proteins (PRPs). Fourteen were expressed preferentially in both young stems and roots. Among them were four genes encoding enzymes of the phenylpropanoid pathway: two Phe ammonia lyases (PALs), a 4-coumarate:coenzyme A ligase (4CL), and a COMT (Table I). Eight genes were preferentially expressed in the aerial portion of the plant—young stems and leaves. Among them are a mur1 equivalent and two genes of the phenylpropanoid pathway—a ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H) and a CAD.

We then searched for genes that were differentially expressed at a given moment during internode development. Among the 651 spotted genes, 133 were differentially expressed in at least one stage (Table II ). As compared to IN6, very few were preferentially expressed uniquely in young stems or IN1. Of the seven genes expressed in young stems, we detected a pectinesterase and a UDP-D-Gal-4-epimerase, suggesting the importance of pectin modification in the early stages of development. In IN6, many genes involved in phenylpropanoid metabolism are preferentially expressed: two PALs (the two that were among the 30 most highly expressed genes), one 4CL, two CCoAOMTs, one COMT, one CCR, and one CAD). There are also two genes of unknown function (contig nos. 3829406.2.1 and 3071483.2.1) with an extremely high degree of specificity in IN6 as indicated by the relative signal values for the three developmental stages in Table II. When comparing IN6 with young stems, it is interesting to note that different classes of transcription factors (three Myb factors and three monopteros genes) and several members of functionally ill-defined families, such as five callose synthases and three chitinase-like genes, are preferentially expressed. In IN1, lignification has presumably slowed down considerably because there are no phenylpropanoid genes that exhibit preferential expression exclusively at this stage.

Despite the economic importance of lignin quantity and quality in dictating certain agronomic traits (Barrière et al., 2003; Méchin et al., 2005), very little is known about the monolignol biosynthetic pathway in maize. By mining the maize databases, we have determined that, as is the case in dicots, most of the monolignol biosynthetic enzymes are encoded by multigene families. The first step in assigning a function to each gene family member is to precisely map out expression patterns for each in developmental fashion. In this way, we provide insight into putative preferred routes of monolignol biosynthesis throughout the maize plant. For each of the monolignol biosynthetic pathway genes, a complete enzyme-by-enzyme survey of developmental expression patterns in different organs and throughout internode development is described below.

PAL/Tyr Ammonia Lyase

PAL catalyzes the first step in the phenylpropanoid pathway by removing ammonia from L-Phe to produce p-coumaric acid. In maize, PAL also has Tyr ammonia lyase (TAL) activity in that the enzyme utilizes Tyr in addition to Phe as substrate (Rösler et al., 1997). In all plants analyzed thus far, PAL is encoded by multigene families. In the complete genome of Arabidopsis, four genes encoding PAL proteins have been identified (Raes et al., 2003). In maize, one PAL/TAL cDNA has been previously reported, but no data on gene number or expression patterns are available (Rösler et al., 1997).

Using the sequence previously described by Rösler et al. (1997), a total of five contigs annotated PAL/TAL were identified with nucleic acid sequence identities ranging from 57% to 84% among them (Supplemental Fig. S4A). Phylogenetic analysis allowed us to define three classes: classes I, II, and III (Fig. 3A ). Class I contains two sequences: the one originally described by Rösler et al. (1997) (contig no. 2161072.2.1) and another with 84% identity at the nucleic acid level (contig no. 2161072.2.3). Class II contains only one member, and class III contains two members that exhibit 77% identity between them. Based uniquely on sequence identity, we were unable to establish an unambiguous relationship with other previously described PAL genes from other species. For example, the class I maize PAL (contig no. 2161072.2.3) exhibited 64% and 66% sequence identity at the protein level with Arabidopsis PAL1 and PAL2, respectively. On the other hand, the same maize contig exhibited 89% and 71% identity at the protein level with rice PAL1 and PAL2, respectively, suggesting that this maize gene is most likely the rice PAL1 putative ortholog (Zhu et al., 1995).

View larger version (24K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 3. Characterization of the PAL gene family in maize. A, Phylogenetic analysis. Classes were defined according to evolutionary distances defined by Phylip 3.5 software. B, Gene expression in organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and IN1 and IN6 at silking. Values indicate the normalized signal hybridization intensity for each gene and (–) signifies a below-background signal intensity of 6,000. C, Relative contribution of each gene to total PAL gene expression. R, Roots; L, leaves, YS, young stems, which results from piled-up internodes at the four- to five-leaf stage. IN6, Internode just below the node bearing the ear at silking; IN1, basal internode at silking. Note that equivalent datasets as found in B and C are available for all gene entries in MAIZEWALL.

Cinnamate 4-Hydroxylase

In conjunction with two other key enzymes of the core phenylpropanoid pathway, PAL and 4CL, cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) directs carbon flux into phenylpropanoid metabolism. C4H belongs to the CYP73A group of the cytochrome P450 family and catalyzes the first oxidative reaction in phenylpropanoid metabolism, namely, the conversion of trans-cinnamic to p-coumaric acid. This reaction consumes molecular oxygen and a reducing equivalent from NADPH delivered via cytochrome P450 reductase (Meijer et al., 1993). In Arabidopsis, C4H is encoded by one gene, which is expressed in all tissues (Mizutani et al., 1997). In maize, we identified two sequences, C4H1 corresponding to contig number 2521589.2.1 and C4H2 cloned by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR in our laboratory. They exhibit 72% identity between them at the nucleotide level. At the protein level, both C4H1 and C4H2 from maize exhibited 75% identity/86% similarity and 81% identity/91% similarity, respectively, with Arabidopsis C4H. Both genes are expressed in all organs and at all stages of internode development (Table III ). C4H1 (contig no. 251589.2.1) is by far the predominant gene in IN6. C4H2, on the other hand, has a tendency to be more highly expressed in all organs of young plants.

4CL, which catalyzes the formation of CoA esters of p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, 5-hydroxyferulic acid, and sinapic acid, plays a pivotal role in channeling phenylpropanoid precursors into different downstream pathways, each leading to a variety of functionally distinct end products (Harding et al., 2002). This probably explains why 4CL is encoded by relatively large multigene families. 4CL isoforms in Arabidopsis have been extensively characterized at the biochemical level (Hamberger and Hahlbrock, 2004; Costa et al., 2005) and their gene expression profiles analyzed (Raes et al., 2003).

To date, only two sequences have been reported in maize (Puigdomenech et al., 2001; S. Sivasankar, D. Sapienza, and T. Helentjaris, unpublished data). Using these maize sequences as bait, we retrieved a total of seven contigs (Fig. 4A ). The percentage of nucleic acid identity among the sequences ranges from 43% to 82% (Supplemental Fig. S4B). Among them, a class I member (contig no. 3071761.2.1) corresponding to the maize sequence isolated by S. Sivasankar, D. Sapienza, and T. Helentjaris (unpublished data) is a putative ortholog to 4CL2 from Arabidopsis (Hamberger and Hahlbrock, 2004) and poplar (Hu et al., 1998).

View larger version (25K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 4. Characterization of the 4CL gene family in maize. A, Phylogenetic analysis. Classes were defined according to evolutionary distances defined by Phylip 3.5 software. Contig numbers 2448387.2.1 and 17163.2.2 annotated as 4CL-like; contig numbers 3106166.2.1 and 1716323.2.1 annotated as putative 4CL. For 4CL2, a contig was not found in the GPI databases. B, Gene expression in organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and internodes at different developmental stages. Values indicate the normalized signal hybridization intensity for each gene and (–) signifies a below-background signal intensity of 6,000. Note that contig numbers 1716323.2.2 and 2448387.2.1 were not included in expression studies because we were unable to amplify corresponding GSTs. C, Relative contribution of each gene to total 4CL gene expression. R, Roots; L, leaves; YS, young stems, which results from piled-up internodes at the four- to five-leaf stage. IN6, Internode just below the node bearing the ear at silking; IN1, basal internode at silking. Note that equivalent datasets as found in B and C are available for all gene entries in MAIZEWALL.

Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA Transferase

Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA transferase (HCT) is the most recently identified actor in monolignol biosynthesis and belongs to a large family of acyltransferases (Hoffmann et al., 2003). It catalyzes the conversion of p-coumaroyl-CoA and caffeoyl-CoA to their corresponding shikimate or quinate esters just up and downstream of p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H). In Arabidopsis, only one gene has been detected in the genome and it is expressed in all tissues investigated, with the strongest expression in inflorescence stems (Raes et al., 2003). In maize, we identified two HCT contigs with 64% identity between them at the nucleotide level. HCT1 (contig no. 2478084.2.1) exhibited 52% identity/63% similarity at the protein level with HCT originally isolated from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum; Hoffmann et al., 2003). HCT2 (contig no. 2619423.2.1) exhibited 58% identity/68% similarity with the tobacco protein. HCT2 (contig no. 2619423.2.1) is expressed at relatively low levels in all young organs and throughout internode development, whereas HCT1 (contig no. 2478084.2.1) is only expressed in IN6 (Table III).

C3H

It was originally postulated that this enzyme catalyzed the C3 hydroxylation step from p-coumaric to caffeic acid. More recently, it has been shown that C3H preferentially converts the shikimate and quinate esters of p-coumaric acid into their corresponding caffeic acid conjugates (Schoch et al., 2001; Franke et al., 2002). C3H belongs to the CYP98 cytochrome P450 family. In Arabidopsis, three C3H genes have been identified in the genome (Raes et al., 2003). One of them, C3H1, clusters with all known C3Hs from other species, whereas C3H2 and C3H3 are more divergent and constitute a separate class and do not appear to hydroxylate shikimate and quinate esters of p-coumaric acid (Schoch et al., 2001). In maize, we found only one contig (no. 2643622.2.1) that annotated C3H (Table III). The sequence exhibited 65% identity with the C3H1 Arabidopsis gene, with much lower homology to C3H2 and C3H3 (49% identity with each). In maize, C3H exhibited relatively low levels of expression in all organs studied, with slightly higher levels in IN6.

CCoAOMT

CCoAOMT, by catalyzing the methylation of caffeoyl-CoA to feruloyl-CoA and 5-hydroxyferuloyl-CoA to sinapoyl-CoA, plays a pivotal role in determining lignin composition (Zhong et al., 1998; Pinçon et al., 2001). Seven CCoAOMT gene family members with different spatiotemporal gene expression patterns were identified in the Arabidopsis genome (Raes et al., 2003). In maize, two CCoAOMT sequences, CCoAOMT1 and CCoAOMT2, have been previously deposited in public databases (Civardi et al., 1999), but to our knowledge no expression data for these genes have ever been reported. By BLASTing these two sequences in GPI databases, we were able to identify a total of five contigs that fell into three classes (Fig. 5A ). Class I contains two members (contig nos. 2455940.2.1 and 2455940.2.2) that correspond to the previously identified CCoAOMT1 and CCoAOMT2, respectively. They exhibited 83% identity at the nucleotide level (Supplemental Fig. S4C). Class II contains one member (contig no. 2591258.2.1) and class III contains two members (contig nos. 2943966.2.1 and 2430769.2.1). In general, global CCoAOMT expression was similar in all organs studied, except in IN1, where expression was significantly lower (Fig. 5B). In all young organs, although all five genes are constitutively expressed, the class II member (2591258.2.1) is the most highly expressed (Fig. 5, B and C). At silking, although all five genes are still expressed in IN6 and IN1, contig number 2455940.2.2 (CCoAOMT2) and contig number 2430769.2.1 account for a large majority of CCoAOMT expression in IN6. It should be noted that CCoAOMT1 (contig no. 2455940.2.1) is expressed at low levels in all organs examined, suggesting that it is not the major actor in lignin biosynthesis in maize. In Arabidopsis, among the seven putative CCoAOMT genes, based on expression patterns, CCoAOMT1 was considered to be the gene most likely involved in constitutive lignification (Raes et al., 2003). Based on sequence homology alone, it is impossible to determine whether CCoAOMT1 or CCoAOMT2 is the functional maize equivalent of this Arabidopsis gene. In any case, based on expression data, CCoAOMT2 appears to be more important for constitutive lignification in maize as compared to CCoAOMT1.

View larger version (24K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 5. Characterization of the CCoAOMT gene family in maize. A, Phylogenetic analysis. Classes were defined according to evolutionary distances defined by Phylip 3.5 software. Contig numbers 2591258.2.1, 2430769.2.1, and 2943966.2.1 annotated as putative CCoAOMT. B, Gene expression in organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and internodes at different developmental stages. Values indicate the normalized signal hybridization intensity for each gene. C, Relative contribution of each gene to total CCoAOMT gene expression. R, Roots; L, leaves; YS, young stems, which results from piled-up internodes at the four- to five-leaf stage. IN6, Internode just below the node bearing the ear at silking; IN1, basal internode at silking. Note that equivalent datasets as found in B and C are available for all gene entries in MAIZEWALL.

CCR catalyzes the conversion of hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA esters (p-coumaroyl-CoA, feruloyl-CoA, sinapoyl-CoA) into their corresponding cinnamyl aldehydes and is therefore the first committed enzyme of the monolignol pathway. Two full-length cDNAs, ZmCCR1 and ZmCCR2, have previously been cloned and their expression pattern in different organs characterized (Pichon et al., 1998). ZmCCR1 was highly expressed along the stalk, suggesting that the corresponding enzyme was probably involved in constitutive lignification. Using ZmCCR1 to BLAST the GPI database, in addition to ZmCCR1 (contig no. 3012873.2.2), six other contigs annotated as CCR/putative CCR were identified (Fig. 6 ). According to phylogenetic analysis, the seven CCR/putative CCRs formed three classes (Fig. 6A). CCRs exhibited 39% to 59% identity with ZmCCR1 (contig no. 3012873.2.2) and 38% to 83% among all family members (Supplemental Fig. S4D).

View larger version (24K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 6. Characterization of the CCR gene family in maize. A, Phylogenetic analysis. Classes were defined according to evolutionary distances defined by Phylip 3.5 software. Contig numbers 131555.2.2, 4695478.2.1, 2969912.2.1, 3230260.2.1, and 131555.2.3 annotated as putative CCRs. For CCR2, a contig was not found in the GPI database. B, Gene expression in organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and internodes at different developmental stages. Values indicate the normalized signal hybridization intensity for each gene and (–) signifies a below-background signal intensity of 6,000. C, Relative contribution of each gene to total CCR gene expression. R, Roots; L, leaves; YS, young stems, which results from piled-up internodes at the four- to five-leaf stage. IN6, Internode just below the node bearing the ear at silking; IN1, basal internode at silking. Note that equivalent datasets as found in B and C are available for all gene entries in MAIZEWALL.

F5H

F5H, or coniferaldehyde 5-hydroxylase, is a cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase (CYP84) and a key enzyme for the production of S-unit lignin in dicotyledonous angiosperms (Humphreys et al., 1999). It catalyzes the 5-hydroxylation of coniferaldehyde and/or coniferyl alcohol. In Arabidopsis, two genes encoding F5H have been identified (Raes et al., 2003). F5H1 is expressed in all tissues, with maximal expression in developing stems, whereas F5H2 appears to be more closely associated with earlier stages of plant development. In maize, there are two F5H genes: F5H1 was previously described by Puigdomenech et al. (2001) and F5H2 was identified in this study. They exhibited 92% identity between them at the nucleotide level. Maize F5H1 and F5H2 exhibit 60% identity/72% similarity and 51% identity/65% similarity, respectively, with the Arabidopsis F5H1 gene at the protein level. Expression analysis indicated that F5H1 was highly expressed in young stems and with the highest expression in leaves. Interestingly, F5H1 transcripts could not be detected in roots (Table III). On the contrary, F5H2 was predominantly expressed in roots and, to a lesser extent, in other organs with the lowest levels in young stems and IN6 (data not shown).

COMT

COMT was originally thought to be a bifunctional enzyme that sequentially methylated caffeic and 5-hydroxyferulic acids. More recently, it has been shown that COMT acts downstream in monolignol biosynthesis by methylating the aldehyde and alcohol backbones (Osakabe et al., 1999; Parvathi et al., 2001). In maize, a single gene encoding COMT has previously been identified (Collazo et al., 1992). Down-regulation of this gene, both in the bm3 mutant (Vignols et al., 1995) and in antisense transgenic maize (Piquemal et al., 2002), led to a drastic decrease in lignin content and S-unit lignin. In the GPI database, we detected one contig (no. 2192909.2.3) that annotated COMT. This contig corresponded to the previously described COMT. In agreement with published expression data (Collazo et al., 1992), this gene was expressed in all organs, with the highest levels in IN6 and the lowest in leaves (Table III).

CAD

CAD catalyzes the reduction of p-hydroxycinnamaldehydes into their corresponding alcohols and is the last enzyme in monolignol biosynthesis. In the Arabidopsis genome, nine putative CAD genes have been identified (Raes et al., 2003). Whether different CAD genes possess different substrate specificity toward coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol and hence dictate, at least to some extent, lignin composition in planta has been the subject to debate (Li et al., 2001; Sibout et al., 2005). Because this issue has not been addressed in monocots (to our knowledge), we chose to classify all contigs annotating CAD, CAD-like, sinapyl alcohol dehydrogenase (SAD), and SAD-like into one CAD family.

In maize, one CAD cDNA had previously been characterized (Halpin et al., 1998). Its expression was also shown to be severely affected in the bm1 mutant, resulting in modified lignin content and structure. Beyond the identification of the previously described CAD (Y13733), searching the GPI databases enabled us to identify six other CAD family contigs (Fig. 7A ). One contig (no. 2405118.2.1) exhibited 92% identity at the nucleotide level with the original CAD gene (Supplemental Fig. S4E). Sequence identities ranged from 39% to 92% among the different family members. Contig numbers 3071507.2.1 and 2949673.2.1 were most similar to the SAD gene originally characterized in poplar and annotated as such (Li et al., 2001). They exhibit, respectively, 51% and 49% identity at the nucleotide level with the poplar SAD gene.

View larger version (24K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 7. Characterization of the CAD gene family in maize. A, Phylogenetic analysis. Classes were defined according to evolutionary distances defined by Phylip 3.5 software. Note that contig number 2485944.3.1 was annotated putative CAD, contigs numbers 3203838.2.1 and 4424417.2.1 were annotated SAD-like, and contig numbers 3071507.2.1 and 2949673.2.1 were annotated SAD. B, Gene expression in organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and internodes at different developmental stages. The values indicate the signal-normalized hybridization intensity for each gene and (–) signifies a below-background signal intensity of 6,000. Note that contig number 2949673.2.1 was not included in CAD expression studies because we were unable to amplify a corresponding GST. C, Relative contribution of each gene to total CAD gene expression. R, Roots; L, leaves; YS, young stems, which results from piled-up internodes at the four- to five-leaf stage. IN6, Internode just below the node bearing the ear at silking; IN1; basal internode at silking. Note that equivalent datasets as found in B and C are available for all gene entries in MAIZEWALL.

Histochemical Analysis Reveals a Large Diversity of Spatially Regulated, Lignified Cell Types in Maize

To associate global cell wall gene expression with cell wall type and composition, cross-sections of the same organs analyzed by transcriptomics were observed (Fig. 8 ). Sections were stained with Maüle reagent, which is classically used to distinguish S-unit (red coloration) and G-unit (brown coloration) lignins (Nakano and Meshitsuka, 1992). In primary roots, three to four cell layers of hypodermal cells just beneath the epidermis exhibited strong staining (Fig. 8, A and B). Interestingly, a closer examination of this region revealed that the outermost cell layer had thin walls that stained brown (G units; see Fig. 8B, thick arrow), whereas the three innermost layers had thick walls that stained red-purple (S units). In the central portion of the root (Fig. 8, A and C), the vascular cylinder is delimited from the cortex by the endodermis, which possesses a thickened cell wall containing suberin and lignin known as the Casparian strip (Zeier et al., 1999). At the four- to five-leaf stage, the Casparian strip is weakly stained with Maüle reagent (Fig. 8C). Two types of xylem vessels can be distinguished based on their diameter and location. Xylem vessels of narrow diameter are intercalated with the phloem strands at the periphery and large diameter vessels that alternate with lignified parenchyma cells, forming an inner ring. Both xylem and lignified parenchyma exhibited red-purple coloration, indicating the presence of substantial amounts of S units. Roots are therefore characterized by a wide variety of lignified, S-rich cells with the exception of a single layer of hypodermal cells just below the epidermis.

View larger version (101K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 8. Histochemical localization of lignin in maize organs at the four- to five-leaf stage and internodes at different stages of development at silking. Sections were stained with Maüle reagent. A to C, Transverse sections of primary roots. A, Overall view of a root section. Red-purple staining in the cells of the hypodermal layers and vascular cylinder indicates the presence of S-unit lignin. B, Close-up of hypodermal layers. The three innermost cell layers stained red-purple and the outermost layer just below the epidermis is stained brown, indicating G-unit lignin (large arrow). C, Close-up of the vascular cylinder. The Casparian strip of the endodermis and two rows of xylem vessels embedded in parenchyma cells are all stained red-purple. D to G, Transverse sections in leaves. D, Leaf blade. E, Midrib. F, Close-up of a vascular bundle from a large vein in the blade. G, Close-up of a vascular bundle from a large vein in the midrib. In all cases, note the yellow-brown coloration of the sclerenchyma cells above the vascular bundle, indicating the absence of S-unit lignin. H, Longitudinal section through the young stem, resulting from piled-up internodes of plants at the four- to five-leaf stage. Black lines indicate the positions of transverse sections in internodal and nodal regions shown in I and J, respectively. I, Transverse section in the first internode. J, Transverse section in the node. Only walls of the protoxylem are stained red. K, General view of a maize plant at the silking stage grown under greenhouse conditions. White lines indicate the positions of transverse sections of IN1 and IN6 shown in L and M, respectively. L, Transverse sections of IN1 showing red staining of all lignified tissues, including sclerenchyma, parenchyma cells, and xylem. M, Transverse sections in IN6. Note that sclerenchyma cells are very weakly stained and parenchyma cells are not at all. en, Endodermis; ph, phloem; p, pith; ep, epidermal cells; hp, hypodermal cell; c, cortex; s, sclerenchyma; x, xylem; lv, large veins; sv, small veins; vb, vascular bundle; lp, lignified parenchyma; px, protoxylem; mx, metaxylem. Magnification bars: B, C, and F, 100 µm; A, D, E, G, L, and M, 200 µm; I and J, 400 µm.

At the four- to five-leaf stage, young stems are formed by the piling up of nodes and internodes that will subsequently elongate during development (Fig. 8, H–J). Staining with Maüle revealed very few lignified cells at this stage. Indeed, only the protoxylem elements stained red-purple in both internodes and nodes (Fig. 8, I and J, respectively). These results suggest that the young stem is an excellent indicator of gene expression associated with the onset of lignification in maize. At silking, internode elongation has ceased and a gradient of lignification exists between the young, upper internodes (IN6) and old, basal internodes (IN1) of the plant (Scobbie et al., 1993). To examine this gradient at the cellular level, IN1 and IN6 were histochemically analyzed (Fig. 8, K–M). In IN6, lignifying cells included the cell layer just below the epidermis and sclerenchyma cells surrounding xylem elements that exhibited a centrifugal red-to-pink color gradient (Fig. 8M). On the contrary, in IN1, a large proportion of the total cell surface area was already lignified. Only a few cell layers of parenchyma cells located just inside the peripheral sclerenchyma did not possess a lignified secondary cell wall. Lignified cell types included xylem vessel elements, sclerenchyma just below the epidermis and surrounding the vascular bundles, and a high proportion of lignified parenchyma between vascular bundles (Fig. 8L). All the lignified cells stained red, indicating the presence of S units. Complementary staining techniques (phloroglucinol and Mirande's reagent) were also used to examine lignified tissues in all organs. These results indicated the same spatial distribution and diversity of lignified cell types throughout the maize plant (data not shown). Together, these results indicate that (1) vascular tissue contributes only a minor fraction to total lignin content throughout the maize plant and (2) IN6 constitutes the ideal organ to study highly active constitutive lignification in adult maize plants. These observations are in perfect agreement with transcriptomic data pointing to the importance of phenylpropanoid metabolism genes at this stage of internode development.

Lignin Structure Varies Greatly throughout the Maize Plant

Plant material used for transcriptomics and histochemistry was also subjected to lignin analysis. Lignin structure was investigated by thioacidolysis, which is an analytical degradation method that proceeds by cleavage of labile -O-4 bonds (Lapierre et al., 1986). The total amount and relative frequency of the H, G, and S units cleaved by thioacidolysis provides an estimate of the amount and composition of these units that are uniquely -O-4 linked. Comparison of H, G, and S distribution among organs at the four- to five-leaf stage revealed striking differences (Table IV ). Root lignin was particularly rich in S units (62.5%), whereas, on the contrary, leaf lignin was particularly rich in G units (72.9%). These results are in good agreement with Maüle histochemical staining. When examining internode development, young stems contain the lowest proportion of S, with slightly more in IN6, followed by IN1. These results suggest that young tissues preferentially accumulate G-unit lignin, whereas S-unit lignin content increases with maturity. This has already been observed in other species (Meyer et al., 1998). Interestingly, H units appear to be more abundant in younger tissues (7.2% in roots, 5.3% in young stems, and 5.4% in IN6) as compared to older tissues (2.2% in IN1). Finally, if one uses thioacidolysis yield (Table IV, H + G + S) as an indicator of lignin content, it may be deduced that IN1 and roots are the most lignified tissues (83 and 53 µmol, respectively), whereas leaves are the least lignified (34 µmol). This is also in agreement with histochemical data. In conclusion, lignin deposition and composition are highly regulated at the spatial level and reflect the extreme diversity of lignified cell types throughout the maize plant.

	DISCUSSION

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

At present, our knowledge of cell wall biosynthesis and assembly, especially in monocotyledons, is fragmentary. When taking into consideration the extent of wall polymer diversity, the multitude of ways they assemble in muro, the high degree of wall specificity in different cell types, and the dynamic changes that take place during development within a given cell, it is predicted that several hundreds or even thousands of genes are required for proper, coordinated wall formation. Cell wall-related genomic and proteomic datasets are now available in herbaceous model species, such as Arabidopsis (Zhao et al., 2005; Jamet et al., 2006) and zinnia (Demura et al., 2002; Milioni et al., 2002; Pesquet et al., 2005), and in woody species, including poplar (Hertzberg et al., 2001) and pine (Pavy et al., 2005). Some Web sites are also dedicated to specific protein families, including expansins (http://www.bio.psu.edu/expansins/index.htm), cellulose synthases and cellulose synthase-like genes (http://cellwall.stanford.edu/cesa/index.shtml), and XTHs (http://labs.plantbio.cornell.edu/XTH/overview.htm). In this respect, a large gap exists for monocot species in that genomic inventories specifically devoted to cell walls are lacking. That said, a high-throughput, Fourier transform infrared-based screen has been set up to identify maize plants with modifications in wall assembly or architecture from the UniformMu maize mutant population developed at the University of Florida (http://www.cellwall.genomics.purdue.edu; Bleecker et al., 2004). In this article, we describe the construction of MAIZEWALL, a repertory of 735 genes complete with in-depth bioinformatic analysis and a transcriptional fingerprint of cell wall-related gene expression throughout the maize plant. We consider MAIZEWALL to be a significant leap forward for maize cell wall research while awaiting the full genome sequence in public databases.

The 735 sequences of MAIZEWALL are divided into 174 families based on known gene annotations. As our aim was to subsequently use this database and the corresponding macroarray for a wide range of applications, including mutant analysis, we deliberately chose to widen the scope of entry annotations to include not only primary and secondary cell wall biosynthetic and assembly genes, but also genes involved in closely related metabolism. To provide the most comprehensive and original overview of gene families in secondary wall formation, we also included maize homologs of cDNAs derived from our zinnia TE differentiation library (Pesquet et al., 2005). The sequences were organized into functional categories, including cellulose synthesis, noncellulosic polysaccharide synthesis, general phenylpropanoid, lignin/lignan, transcription factors, etc. This classification was temporary because an actual proof-of-function for any of the MAIZEWALL entries is extremely rare. In our study, as part of the bioinformatic analysis, the most homologous genes in other species have been provided in the database, but these data are based solely on sequence homology and should not be taken as an indication of equivalent gene function. When the maize genome becomes available, it will be necessary to update this search.

Transcriptome-Based Identification of Developmental Marker Genes of Cell Wall Formation in Maize

Global gene expression analysis in different organs and developmental stages of internode development provided us with a fingerprint of the cell wall transcriptome throughout the maize plant. In this way, we identified (1) individual gene family members that are preferentially expressed in a particular organ or developmental stage, and (2) genes that are spatially and temporally coregulated. When considering young plants, the observation that one-third of the genes spotted on the macroarray are not expressed at all is, in itself, of interest. This implies that the transcriptional needs in the early stages of plant development revolve around a restricted set of metabolic functions. When examining the 30 most abundantly expressed genes in all young organs, it is clear that genes involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis and modification genes are predominant. Regarding cellulose synthesis, a cellulose synthase (QBS7b05.xg.2.1), two isoforms of Suc synthase (contig nos. 3748394.2.2 and 131537.2.202), and three endoglucanases (contig nos. 2493751.2.1, 3713002.2.1, and 2922138.2.1) were identified. Among the 14 cellulose synthase genes spotted on the macroarray, only one gene (QBS7b05.xg.2.1) exhibited consistently high levels of expression, not only throughout young plants but also during later stages of internode development. The expression patterns of 12 cellulose synthase genes (ZmCesA1–12) in maize have been previously reported (Holland et al., 2000; Appenzeller et al., 2004). ZmCesA1 to 9 were considered more closely associated with cellulose synthesis in primary walls, whereas ZmCesA10 to 12 were more closely associated with secondary wall cellulose synthesis. QBS7b05.xg.2.1 shares 95% identity with ZmCesA12. The most homologous Arabidopsis gene is irx3, which has been clearly shown to be associated with secondary wall cellulose biosynthesis (Taylor et al., 1999). Detailed functional analysis of QBS7b05.x.g.2.1 in maize would enable us to determine its role in either primary or secondary wall cellulose metabolism. Similarly, two of the four spotted contigs annotated UDP-Glc dehydrogenase were among the most highly expressed genes in all young tissues (but not in IN6 or IN1). UDP-Glc dehydrogenase is a key enzyme that oxidizes UDP-Glc to UDP-GlcUA and thus directs carbohydrates irreversibly into the cell wall-specific pool of nucleotide sugars. These transcriptomic data allowed us to identify major actors of cell wall metabolism in young maize tissues, some expressed organ preferentially and others expressed ubiquitously.

A completely different transcriptome fingerprint was obtained when examining the 30 most highly and preferentially expressed genes at midstage internode development (IN6). Clearly, the most highly abundant and/or preferentially expressed transcripts in IN6 include genes in secondary cell wall synthesis and, more particularly, certain gene family members of the lignin biosynthetic pathway (three PALs, one C4H, one 4CL, two CCoAOMTs, one CCR, one COMT, one F5H1, and one CAD). These transcriptomic data are in perfect agreement with cytological observations indicating that IN6 is clearly at the onset of lignification. Moreover, these results suggest highly coordinated transcriptional coregulation among many genes along the monolignol biosynthetic pathway. It is interesting to note that Myb and monopteros transcription factors are also preferentially expressed in IN6, making them excellent candidates for transcriptional regulation of lignin biosynthesis. Myb factors have already been shown to play a role in the coordinated regulation of lignin genes in several different plant species (Karpinska et al., 2004; Goicoechea et al., 2005).

Toward a Division of Labor among Family Members of Lignin Biosynthetic Genes in Different Organs

Until now, the known actors involved in dicot lignin biosynthesis have not been studied in any detail in maize, with the exception of a few isolated gene expression studies for COMT (Capellades et al., 1996), CCR (Pichon et al., 1998), and CAD (Halpin et al., 1998). Allelic variations have also been evaluated for two CCoAOMT and COMT genes in 34 lines of maize selected for their varying digestibility (Guillet-Claude et al., 2004). Herein, we combine cytological, chemical, and transcriptomic approaches as a first step in determining the gene family member for each of the 10 enzymatic steps of the monolignol biosynthetic pathway that is most likely involved in lignin formation in different organs and stages of internode development. As a general rule, monolignol biosynthetic enzymes that are encoded by multigene families in Arabidopsis are also encoded by multigene families in maize, although the numbers may vary. A similar observation has already been made between rice and Arabidopsis (Yokoyama and Nishitani, 2004). Although these differences in gene number certainly exist among species, the predicted number of genes for a given function also depends on the bioinformatic parameters used for gene annotation in the different studies. That said, we did find some essential differences in gene number between Arabidopsis and maize. First, C4H and HCT are encoded by single genes in Arabidopsis, whereas we identified two genes for each of these functions in maize. Second, in Arabidopsis, C3H is encoded by three genes, whereas only one was identified in maize. It is possible that other maize C3Hs may be identified when the complete genome sequence becomes available.

In Supplemental Figure S5, we have compiled gene expression data for each of the 10 gene families (based on Figures 3–7 and Table III) to propose the most likely routes of monolignol biosynthesis in young organs and during internode development in maize. This scheme is based exclusively on relative gene expression levels for each family, and, for this reason, we cannot exclude that the most highly expressed genes may be involved in the synthesis of other phenylpropanoid metabolites and not necessarily monolignols.

Is There a Sclerenchyma-Specific Route for G-Unit Lignin Synthesis in Leaves?

Lignin analysis of maize plants at the four- to five-leaf stage indicated that leaves were characterized by a high proportion of G units. Similar results have already been reported for leaves at the flowering stage (Piquemal et al., 2002). Our cytological observations revealed that leaf veins are surrounded by patches of heavily lignified sclerenchyma cells that account for a large majority of lignified cells in leaves. These cells stain yellow-brown with Maüle, thereby explaining the high G-unit lignin content in leaves. To our knowledge, G-rich sclerenchyma fibers have not been described in higher plants. In dicots, it is commonly accepted that xylem vessels contain G units, whereas fibers and parenchyma contain both G- and S-unit lignin, with the latter predominating in fibers (Donaldson, 2001). These results suggest that a novel genetic program leading to G units in sclerenchyma fiber cells may be functional in maize leaves.

When analyzing gene expression data, we noted that some members of the multigene families of the monolignol pathway exhibited proportionally high levels of expression in the leaves. In the case of PAL, among the five contigs, three were expressed in leaves, one of which (contig no. 3858663.2.1) contributed to the large majority of total PAL transcriptional activity in leaves. This class II maize PAL is most homologous to Arabidopsis PAL2. In Arabidopsis, PAL2 is expressed in all organs, although most abundantly in roots and stems (Raes et al., 2003). Based on gene expression data, Arabidopsis PAL2, along with PAL1, was considered to be most likely involved in constitutive lignin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis. Detailed sequence analysis of the promoter region of PAL2 indicated the presence of an AC box. Interestingly, the authors hypothesize that this AC box may be a potential signpost of genes involved in G-unit lignin synthesis (Raes et al., 2003). Continuing along the pathway, among the 4CL genes in maize, one of them, 4CL, is the most highly expressed in leaves. The maize 4CL gene is most homologous to the Arabidopsis 4CL1 gene, which, along with Arabidopsis 4CL2, is considered to be involved in constitutive lignification. Again, the presence of an AC box in the promoter region in 4CL1 from Arabidopsis was indicative of G-unit synthesis. By combining cytological, biochemical, and transcriptome data, it is tempting to speculate that the maize PAL (contig no. 3858663.2.1) and 4CL channel phenylpropanoid intermediates into a G-rich sclerenchyma pathway in maize leaves. However, we cannot exclude that these genes function in a distinct branch of phenylpropanoid metabolism in leaves. Promoter analysis of these and laser microdissection techniques coupled to metabolic profiling would be particularly useful to confirm the hypothesis that there is a G-unit monolignol pathway in the sclerenchyma cells of maize leaves.

Finally, transcript profiling of G-rich leaves yielded some unexpected results and raises new questions. First, among CAD family members, contig number 4424417.2.1 is the most highly expressed in leaves. This gene was originally annotated as SAD like. Our expression data are in apparent contradiction with the idea that this branch of the CAD family phylogenetic tree is specifically dedicated to S-unit lignin synthesis. Second, F5H1, again normally associated with S-unit lignin synthesis, is among the 30 most highly expressed genes in leaves. This observation obliges us to reexamine the role of this F5H gene in maize leaves. In any case, all of these genes must be subjected to in-depth biochemical and molecular characterization to precisely determine their role in planta.

Is There a Root-Specific Pathway to Synthesize S-Unit Lignin?

A question that should be addressed in detail is whether lignin biosynthesis occurs via the same suite of enzymatic steps in all organs and at all developmental stages during plant life. This is probably due to the fact that most biochemical and molecular studies on lignification focus primarily on stems of model, herbaceous plants or wood. Some clues may be obtained from the recent characterization of the C3H1 mutant in Arabidopsis (Abdulrazzak et al., 2006). As expected, the aerial portions of the mutant had lower lignin content and were almost exclusively composed of H units, with only trace amounts of G and S units. More surprisingly, in roots, lignin contained both G and S units in significant amounts. These results suggest that the hydroxylation step leading to G and S synthesis must occur via a C3H-independent pathway in Arabidopsis roots. In keeping with this hypothesis, the unique C3H gene identified in maize is expressed at barely above background levels in roots and it would be difficult to imagine that this C3H enzyme could, in itself, account for the total flux of phenylpropanoid metabolites into G and S units in roots. However, the fact that a relatively high level of H-unit lignin was measured in roots, concomitantly with low C3H expression levels, on the contrary, may indeed suggest that C3H may be involved in controlling the channeling of monolignols from the H- to G- and S-unit pathways. It is interesting to note that overall C3H expression is relatively low not only in roots but also, to a lesser extent, throughout the maize plant. Inefficient C3H-mediated channeling may explain, at least in part, the accumulation of H-unit lignin in maize (and in monocots in general) in comparison to dicot species.

In maize, lignin analysis of roots from plants at the four- to five-leaf stage indicated an extremely high proportion of S-unit lignin as compared to the other organs studied. Maize roots therefore provide a unique opportunity to probe S-unit synthesis in maize. Several studies carried out in dicots underline the importance of F5H1 in the synthesis of S units in Arabidopsis (Meyer et al., 1998; Humphreys et al., 1999; Ruegger et al., 1999), tobacco, and poplar (Franke et al., 2000). Unexpectedly, transcriptome profiling of S-unit-rich roots of maize revealed that F5H1, the most likely functional homolog of F5H1 from Arabidopsis based on sequence analysis, was not expressed at all in roots. However, RT-PCR analysis did indicate that a distinct F5H, F5H2, was expressed, but only slightly, in maize roots (data not shown). These data suggest that the hydroxylation of coniferaldehyde and/or coniferyl alcohol for S-unit synthesis may occur either via F5H2 or perhaps by a totally different pathway in maize roots. Interestingly, in Arabidopsis, neither of two F5H genes is even moderately expressed in roots compared to the other organs (Raes et al., 2003), raising the question as to whether, even in Arabidopsis, F5H is involved in S-unit synthesis in roots. It would be interesting to determine whether lignin composition of the F5H mutant (fah1) is altered in roots. Taken together, it is not clear whether roots from all species use a common hydroxylation/methylation pathway for G-unit and S-unit lignin synthesis that is different from the aerial portions or whether roots use alternative pathways for G-unit and S-unit lignin synthesis in a species-specific manner. In any case, based on the relatively high proportion of H units typically found in monocot versus dicot lignin, it is reasonable to assume that some specificity in terms of the genes and regulatory mechanisms of hydroxylation/methoxylation pathways exist in monocots.

In the search for clues to explain high S-unit lignin content in roots, we closely examined the CAD family transcriptome because it is still unclear as to whether CAD/SAD isoforms orient G- and S-unit synthesis, respectively. Li et al. (2001) originally identified an enzyme in poplar with high sequence homology to the traditional CAD gene, but with higher substrate specificity for sinapaldehyde than for coniferaldehyde. The authors called this enzyme SAD and proposed that SAD was required for S-unit biosynthesis, whereas CADs were required for G-unit lignin biosynthesis. However, more recently, Sibout et al. (2005) reported that, in Arabidopsis, CAD genes were sufficient to produce S-unit lignin without the requirement for SAD genes. Our results indicate that the classic CAD (Y13733) is by far the predominantly expressed CAD in roots. This finding further supports the hypothesis that CAD is sufficient to produce both S and G units, even in maize.

Above and beyond the benefits for maize lignin research, MAIZEWALL is unique in that it contains an in-depth bioinformatic analysis and expression data on a wide range of cell wall-related families in a monocot species within a single interface. It provides the groundwork to significantly enhance our basic knowledge of cell walls in maize and can be of immediate use for a wide range of agronomic and industrial pursuits ranging from forage digestibility to bioethanol production (Boudet et al., 2003).

	MATERIALS AND METHODS

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 

Plant Material

The well-characterized F2 maize (Zea mays) line was used in this study. Plants were grown in pots with a mixture of sand and compost and irrigated with nutritive solution in the greenhouse during the spring of 2004 in Lusignan, France. Plants were harvested when they had four to five expanded leaves or at silking just before pollen shed. At the four- to five-leaf stage, roots, piled-up internodes (referred to as young stems throughout the text), and leaves were harvested. At the silking stage, the basal internode (IN1) and the internode just below the node bearing the ear (IN6) were sampled. Nodes and leaf sheaths were eliminated. For transcriptome analysis, all samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen and conserved at –80°C. Nine plants were divided into three pools of three plants each for transcriptome analysis and all plants were pooled for lignin analysis.

Database Construction

The MAIZEWALL database was constructed using two gene sources. The first was based on a list of nearly 100 keywords from existing knowledge of primary and secondary cell wall biosynthesis and assembly, and vascular patterning was established. These keywords fell under different categories: cellulose synthesis, noncellulose polysaccharide synthesis, nucleotide sugar synthesis, conversion and transport, cell wall proteins, general phenylpropanoid, lignin/lignan, etc. Keywords were used to search the PubMed, Nucleotide, and Protein resources of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases to retrieve all available information related to each keyword (literature references, nucleotide and protein sequences, respectively). Searches were first performed using keyword "AND Zea" (to obtain a maize sequence when available). If a maize sequence was unavailable, keyword "AND plant" was used to obtain a plant sequence that was subsequently used (see below) as bait to retrieve unannotated sequences in maize databases. The second source of genes corresponded to maize genes exhibiting homology with ESTs from a zinnia (Zinnia elegans) subtractive library enriched in genes expressed during secondary wall formation of in vitro TEs (Pesquet et al., 2005). Briefly, 232 NR ESTs were generated by suppressive subtractive hybridization carried out on in vitro differentiating TEs of zinnia at several selected time points corresponding to presecondary cellulose thickening, prelignification, and early cell death.

All of the protein and nucleotide sequences from the two above-mentioned strategies were used to search the most homologous maize sequences in the MaizeGénoplanteContigsVersion2 database (GPI2). The Génoplante database includes mRNAs retrieved from NCBI and ESTs from the Génoplante program, dbEST, and Stanford resources (Samson et al., 2003). A global clustering of sequences was performed to produce gene-specific contigs. At the time of this writing, GPI2 contained nearly 60,000 contigs.

An overall scheme for the construction of MAIZEWALL can be found in Figure 1. MAIZEWALL was written in PHP language (http://www.php.net), runs on an Apache2 server, and interacts with MySQL (http://www.mysql.com) to save data in the form of tables and make queries related to the data. PHP script uses some applications on the GPI secure interface, such as BLAST2 (Altschul et al., 1997), ClustalW (Thompson et al., 1994), Dialign2 (Morgenstern, 1999), Multalin (Corpet, 1988), eprimer3 (Rozen and Skaletsky, 2000), SWALL (SWISS-PROT, TrEMBL, and new databases), NR protein database, Génoplante contig databases, and some EMBOSS package programs (revseq and transeq; Rice et al., 2000). Several programs were also applied to Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) protein sequences that correspond to homologs of maize-selected contigs to search protein domains, signal peptide position, transmembrane domains, and subcellular targeting sequences. They include Aramemnon (Schwacke et al., 2003), MIPS (Schoof et al., 2002), PSORT (Nakai et Horton, 1999), PROSITE (Sigrist et al., 2002), SMART (Schultz et al., 2000; Finn et al., 2006), ProDom (Corpet et al., 1998), SignalP (Bendtsen et al., 2004), TMHMM (Krogh et al., 2001), TargetP (Emanuelsson et al., 2000), and Predotar (Small et al., 2004).

For zinnia sequences, BLASTn and tBLASTx searches were performed directly on GPI2. Maize sequences with an e value of e^–05 from zinnia sequences and an e value of e^–20 from a keywords search that annotated with the expected putative function against SWALL (SWISS-PROT, TrEMBL, and new databases) and NR databases were included in MAIZEWALL. In total, 735 contigs met these criteria. All of the MAIZEWALL entries were used to retrieve the closest available sequence in other plant species, including rice (Oryza sativa), pine (Pinus sylvestris), poplar (Populus tremuloides), Arabidopsis, wheat (Triticum aestivum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and Medicago.

To construct the macroarray, we designed specific primer pairs to amplify gene-specific PCR fragments for each gene. Toward this end, contigs that annotated with the same putative function (and hence with a high degree of homology) were multialigned using ClustalW, Dialign2, and Multalin programs. The 3'-UTRs were defined and specific primer pairs designed using the eprimer3 program (20 bp, Tm 58°C–60°C) to amplify GSTs of 150 to 250 bp in length. GST specificity was confirmed by BLAST against GPI2 to ensure that no hits were detected except for the contig of origin.

Macroarray Construction

To design the macroarray that would guarantee maximal signal specificity and sensitivity, a pilot experiment was carried out on a set of three O-methyltransferase genes selected for their known expression profiles. The experiment was designed to optimize the following parameters: (1) quantity of cDNA spotted on the membrane; (2) source for probe synthesis (total RNA versus polyA RNA); (3) probe type (reverse-transcribed cDNA versus random priming); (4) length of GSTs spotted; and (5) relative proportion of 3'-UTR and coding sequence to ensure hybridization specificity within a multigene family. The pilot macroarray contained COMT (M73235), CCoAOMT1 (AJ242980), and CCoAOMT2 (AJ242981). The results of this pilot array enabled us to define technical parameters for the cell wall macroarray as follows: spotted PCR products corresponded to the 3'-UTR of 150 to 250 bp in length at a concentration of 0.25 µg/µL (100 nL/spot); the cDNA probe was generated from reverse transcription of total RNA.

Six hundred fifty-one GSTs were spotted on the macroarray. The GSTs were amplified by PCR in 96-well PCR plates in a total volume of 50 µL/well with 25 µL of 2x Master Mix PCR (Promega), 4 µL of forward and reverse specific primers for each GST (10 µM each), 20 µL of ultrapure water, and 1 µL of the recombinant bacterial culture containing the corresponding plasmid. To obtain PCR products of genes for which a viable bacterial culture was not available, RT-PCR was performed on a pool of roots, young stems, and leaves of the F2 line using standard procedures (Promega). All primers were synthesized by MWG-BIOTECH.

PCR products were transferred to Eppendorf tubes, precipitated in sodium acetate (0.3 M) and isopropanol overnight at –20°C, and centrifuged for 30 min at 12,000 rpm. Pellets were then rinsed twice in 70% ethanol, dried, and resuspended in 20 µL of Tris-EDTA buffer (pH 8.0). PCR products were checked for a single band of the expected size and quantified at 260 nm with a Biophotometer (Eppendorf) and by electrophoresis on 2% agarose gels. They were diluted to a final concentration of 0.5 µg/µL. PCR products were then denatured in 50% DMSO and transferred to 384-well plates. Controls were added in separate 384-well plates. One plate included 384 Tris-EDTA, pH 8.0 (blank background control), and another plate with 30 NPT II fragments (a positive hybridization control), 20 pBluescript plasmids (unspecific hybridization control), and 18 ubiquitin fragments (positive control) prepared as indicated above (Pesquet et al., 2005). All fragments were then spotted onto a 20- x 20-cm Nytran SuPerCharge nylon membrane (Schleicher and Schuell) using a BioGrid spotting robot (BioRobotics) in a 4 x 4 grid organization with each spotted in duplicate within a grid. Each amplified GST was also spotted in two different grids, which means that each GST was spotted four times on each macroarray. All macroarrays were UV cross-linked at 1,200 x 100 µJ/cm² prior to use.

RNA Extraction and Purification

Total RNA was isolated from 5 g of each sample according to the method described by Ragueh et al. (1989). After grinding in liquid nitrogen, the material was resuspended in extraction buffer (200 mM Tris, pH 7.0, 20 mM EDTA, 100 mM NaCl, 1% SDS) and extracted twice with phenol:chloroform:isoamylalcohol (25:24:1). Total RNA was precipitated with sodium acetate (0.3 M) with isopropanol. The aqueous phase was separated by centrifugation (20 min, 12,000 rpm) and the pellet resuspended in nuclease-free water. Finally, RNA was extracted with phenol:chloroform:isoamylalcohol (25:24:1) and twice with chloroform:isoamylalcohol (24:1). After extraction, LiCl (3 M) was added to the aqueous phase and left overnight at 4°C. RNA was precipitated by centrifugation (30 min at 12,000 rpm) and the resulting pellet rinsed with ethanol (100%) and resuspended in sterile, distilled water. Total RNA was subjected to DNA digestion with 5 units of RNase-free DNase I (Promega) for 1 h at 37°C. RNA content was measured at 260 mm with a Biophotometer (Eppendorf) and visualized by electrophoresis on 1.5% agarose gels. RNA concentration was then adjusted to 1 µg/µL for further use. To obtain polyA RNA, Dynabeads oligo(dT)₂₅ (Dynal Biotech ASA) were used according to the Dynal Biotech protocol (http://www.invitrogen.com).

cDNA Probe Synthesis and Hybridization

cDNA probe synthesis and membrane hybridization were performed according to Pesquet et al. (2005) with two slight modifications. First, probes were synthesized from 10 µg of total RNA for each sample. Second, after hybridization at 65°C, membranes were washed more stringently at the same temperature: twice for 15 min in 3x SSC/0.5% SDS, once for 15 min in 1x SSC/0.5% SDS, once for 15 min in 0.5x SSC/0.5% SDS, and once for 15 min in 0.1x SSC/0.5% SDS. Membranes were wrapped in cellophane and placed in a PhosphorImager cassette (Molecular Dynamics, Amersham-Pharmacia) for 72 h and scanned at 50 µm/pixel by a Storm 820 scanner (Amersham-Pharmacia).

Statistical Analysis of Gene Expression

Data analysis was performed according to Pesquet et al. (2005). Macroarray gridding and gene expression levels were measured with ImageQuant 5.0 software (Molecular Dynamics, Amersham-Pharmacia) using 4 x 4 grids. Grids were adjusted manually and tested with regard to the distance of the maximal intensity value from the centroid of the measured area in x and y axis. Expression data for all gene sequences were analyzed using the Microsoft Excel program. Normalization between samples was established using the linear slope defined by the blank background, unspecific hybridization, and positive hybridization controls (Tris-EDTA, pH 8, pBluescript, ubiquitin, and NPT II, respectively) in the different samples (Supplemental Fig. S1). The slope defined by the controls indicated a linear correlation factor of R² close to 1.

Preliminary analyses were first performed to assess the inner-membrane variation of duplicate spots for each gene on the same membrane and the reproducibility of spot intensity ratios (expressed as a log₁₀ expression ratio [LR]) resulting from hybridizations of independent membranes using independent probes derived from independent biological samples. The data obtained were highly reproducible within a given membrane and, even more importantly, between two independent membranes (Supplemental Fig. S2). In the experiment illustrated in Supplemental Figure S2, 96% of the values fell within ±0.176 LR of the mean (equivalent to a 1.5-fold difference) and 99% within ±0.3 LR (equivalent to a 2-fold difference). Macroarray reproducibility was further analyzed by comparing spot intensity values from three independent hybridizations performed on three independent membranes with probes from three independent samples. Linear coefficients of determination between experiments were calculated, thereby defining high reproducibility between independent hybridizations with more than 95% of the values confined within a 2-fold limit (Supplemental Fig. S3). The average signal value from triplicate hybridizations and SD were calculated for each gene (Supplemental Table S4). Genes whose SDs exceed their average signal values were eliminated from the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet gene list. Taking into consideration background signal intensities, a gene was considered expressed when its intensity was greater than 6,000 and, in order for a gene to be considered as differentially expressed between two hybridizations, the difference in spot intensities had to be greater than a 2-fold significance threshold.

Phylogenetic Analysis of Lignification Genes

For the construction of phylogenetic trees, contig sequences were aligned with the ClustalW 1.83 program (Thompson et al., 1994) and the relation between them was then investigated with the Phylip 3.5 package (http://evolution.genetics.washington.edu/phylip.html). Sequence alignments were performed with the Needle program of EMBOSS software suite (Rice et al., 2000).

Lignin Histochemical Staining

Leaf, stem, and root sections were cut with a vibratome. Maüle reactions were performed according to standard protocols (Nakano and Meshitsuka, 1992). Sections were observed using an inverted microscope (Leitz DMIRBE). Images were registered using a CCD camera (Color Coolview; Photonic Science) and treated by image analysis (Image Pro-Plus; Media Cybernetics).

Lignin Analysis

Leaves, roots, and young stems of four- to five-leaf-stage plants and IN1 and IN6 of flowering plants were lyophilized at harvest and ground to a fine powder. Lignin monomeric composition was determined by thioacidolysis followed by gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS) of lignin-derived monomer trimethylsilylated (TMS) derivatives (Lapierre et al., 1986).

Thioacidolysis reagent contained 2.5 mL of BF3 etherate and 10 mL of ethanethiol, adjusted to a 100-mL volume with dioxane. Each dried and ground sample fragment (dry weight ranging from 10–30 mg) was added to 10 mL of reagent and 1 mL of a docosane solution (0.1 mg/mL in CH₂Cl₂ as GC internal standard) in a glass tube closed with a Teflon-lined screw cap. Thioacidolysis was performed at 100°C for 4 h. The cooled reaction mixture was diluted with 30 mL of water and its pH was adjusted to 3 to 4 with aqueous NaHCO₃. The reaction mixture was extracted with CH₂Cl₂ (3 x 30 mL). Combined organic extracts were dried over Na₂SO₄ and then evaporated under reduced pressure at 40°C. The final residue was resolubilized in 1 mL of CH₂Cl₂ before silylation and GC-MS analysis as previously described (Lapierre, 1993). The quantitative determination of the main H-, G-, and S-unit lignin-derived monomers, analyzed as their TMS derivatives, was carried out from specific ion chromatograms reconstructed at m/z 239 for the H monomers, 269 for G monomers, and 299 for S monomers after an appropriate calibration relative to the docosane internal standard. These acids were estimated from specific ion chromatograms reconstructed at m/z 338 (FE) and 308 (PC), which respectively corresponds to the molecular ions of their TMS derivatives.

Supplemental Data

The following materials are available in the online version of this article.

Supplemental Figure S1. Normalization between independent experiments.

Supplemental Figure S2. Scatter plot of duplicate spots from independent hybridizations.

Supplemental Figure S3. Scatter plot of normalized spots of independent experiments.

Supplemental Figure S4. Nucleic acid identities of lignin genes.

Supplemental Figure S5. Hypothetical routes of monolignol biosynthesis in maize.

Supplemental Table S1. Cell wall gene catalog of MAIZEWALL.

Supplemental Table S2. Most highly expressed genes in young plants.

Supplemental Table S3. Most highly expressed genes in stems.

Supplemental Table S4. Statistical analysis of macroarray data.

	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
We sincerely thank Edouard Pesquet for his invaluable help in the initial phases of database construction and macroarray analysis. We are also grateful to Odile Barbier for technical support, Brigitte Pollet for thioacidolysis analysis, and Dominique Denoue for growing maize plants. We thank Mickaël Bosio and Jean-Pierre Martinant (Biogemma, Clermont-Ferrand) for fruitful discussions and David Rouquié (Rhobio, Evry) for providing some of the EST sequences. Laurent Decousset (Biogemma, Clermont-Ferrand) provided us with all of the plasmids. For macroarray spotting, we acknowledge Nathalie Ladouce (Génopole, Toulouse). And, finally, we would like to thank Alain Michel Boudet for a critical review of the manuscript, and Christophe Pineau and Philippe Ranocha for helping with database design.

Received July 7, 2006; accepted November 3, 2006; published November 10, 2006.

	FOOTNOTES

 
¹ This work was supported by the Génoplante Programme, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Deborah Goffner (goffner{at}scsv.ups-tlse.fr).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.106.086405

^* Corresponding author; e-mail goffner{at}scsv.ups-tlse.fr; fax 33–562–19–35–02.

	LITERATURE CITED

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 
Abdulrazzak N, Pollet B, Ehlting J, Larsen K, Asnaghi C, Ronseau S, Proux C, Erhardt M, Seltzer V, Renou JP, et al (2006) A coumaroyl-ester-3-hydroxylase insertion mutant reveals the existence of nonredundant meta-hydroxylation pathways and essential roles for phenolic precursors in cell expansion and plant growth. Plant Physiol 140: 30–48[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Altschul SF, Madden TL, Schaeffer AA, Zhang J, Zhang Z, Miller W, Lipman DJ (1997) Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. Nucleic Acids Res 25: 3389–3402[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Andjelkovic V, Thompson R (2006) Changes in gene expression in maize kernel in response to water and salt stress. Plant Cell Rep 25: 71–79[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Appenzeller L, Doblin M, Barreiro R, Wang H, Niu X, Kollipara K (2004) Cellulose synthesis in maize: isolation and expression analysis of the cellulose synthase (CesA) gene family. Cellulose 11: 287–299[CrossRef][Web of Science]

Arpat AB, Waugh M, Sullivan JP, Gonzales M, Frisch D, Main D, Wood T, Leslie A, Wing RA, Wilkins TA (2004) Functional genomics of cell elongation in developing cotton fibers. Plant Mol Biol 54: 911–929[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Barrière Y, Guillet C, Goffner D, Pichon M (2003) Genetic variation and breeding strategies for improved cell wall digestibility in annual forage crops. Anim Res 52: 193–228[CrossRef]

Bendtsen JD, Nielsen H, von Heijne G, Brunak S (2004) Improved prediction of signal peptides: SignalP 3.0. J Mol Biol 340: 783–795[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Bestwick CS, Bennett MH, Mansfield JW (1995) Hrp mutant of Pseudomonas syringae pv phaseolicola induces cell wall alterations but not membrane damage leading to the hypersensitive reaction in lettuce. Plant Physiol 108: 503–516[Abstract]

Bleecker T, Carpita N, Koch K, McCann M, McCarty D, Patterson S, Reiter W-D, Staiger C, Thomas S, Vermerris W (2004) Identification of cell-wall-mutants of maize and Arabidopsis by Fourier transform mid-range and near infrared spectroscopies (poster no. 848). In Plant and Animal Genomes XII Conference, January 10–14, San Diego, CA

Boudet AM, Kajita S, Grima-Pettenati J, Goffner D (2003) Lignins and lignocellulosics: a better control of synthesis for new and improved uses. Trends Plant Sci 8: 576–581[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Bradley DJ, Kjellbom P, Lamb CJ (1992) Elicitor- and wound-induced oxidative cross-linking of a proline-rich plant cell wall protein: a novel, rapid defense response. Cell 70: 21–30[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Brendel V, Kurtz S, Walbot V (2002) Comparative genomics of Arabidopsis and maize: prospects and limitations. Genome Biol 3: 14

Capellades M, Torres MA, Bastisch I, Stiefel V, Vignols F, Bruce WB, Peterson D, Puigdomenech P, Rigau J (1996) The maize caffeic acid O-methyltransferase gene promoter is active in transgenic tobacco and maize plant tissues. Plant Mol Biol 31: 307–322[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Carpita NC (1996) Structure and biogenesis of the cell walls of grasses. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 47: 445–476[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Carpita NC, Gibeaut DM (1993) Structural models of primary cell walls in flowering plants: consistency of molecular structure with the physical properties of the walls during growth. Plant J 3: 1–30[CrossRef][Medline]

Casati P, Walbot V (2004) Rapid transcriptome responses of maize (Zea mays) to UV-B in irradiated and shielded tissues. Genome Biol 5: 1[Free Full Text]

Civardi L, Rigau J, Puigdomenech P (1999) Nucleotide sequence of two cDNAs coding for caffeoyl-coenzyme A O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT) and study of their expression in Zea mays. Plant Physiol 120: 1026–1113

Collazo P, Montoliu L, Puigdomenech P, Rigau J (1992) Structure and expression of the lignin O-methyltransferase gene from Zea mays L. Plant Mol Biol 20: 857–867[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Corpet F (1988) Multiple sequence alignment with hierarchical clustering. Nucleic Acids Res 16: 10881–10890[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Corpet F, Gouzy J, Kahn D (1998) The ProDom database of protein domain families. Nucleic Acids Res 26: 323–326[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Costa MA, Bedgar DL, Moinuddin SG, Kim KW, Cardenas CL, Cochrane FC, Shockey JM, Helms GL, Amakura Y, Takahashi H, et al (2005) Characterization in vitro and in vivo of the putative multigene 4-coumarate:CoA ligase network in Arabidopsis: syringyl lignin and sinapate/sinapyl alcohol derivative formation. Phytochemistry 66: 2072–2091[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Demura T, Tashiro G, Horiguchi G, Kishimoto N, Kubo M, Matsuoka N, Minami A, Nagata-Hiwatashi M, Nakamura K, Okamura Y, et al (2002) Visualization by comprehensive microarray analysis of gene expression programs during transdifferentiation of mesophyll cells into xylem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 15794–15799[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Donaldson LA (2001) Lignification and lignin topochemistry—an ultrastructural view. Phytochemistry 57: 859–873[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Emanuelsson O, Nielsen H, Brunak S, von Heijne G (2000) Predicting subcellular localization of proteins based on their N-terminal amino acid sequence. J Mol Biol 300: 1005–1016[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Finn RD, Mistry J, Schuster-Bockler B, Griffiths-Jones S, Hollich V, Lassmann T, Moxon S, Marshall M, Khanna A, Durbin R, et al (2006) Pfam: clans, web tools and services. Nucleic Acids Res 34: D247–D251[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Franke R, Humphreys JM, Hemm MR, Denault JW, Ruegger MO, Cusumano JC, Chapple C (2002) The Arabidopsis REF8 gene encodes the 3-hydroxylase of phenylpropanoid metabolism. Plant J 30: 33–45[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Franke R, McMichael CM, Meyer K, Shirley AM, Cusumano JC, Chapple C (2000) Modified lignin in tobacco and poplar plants over-expressing the Arabidopsis gene encoding ferulate 5-hydroxylase. Plant J 22: 223–234[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Girke T, Lauricha J, Tran H, Keegstra K, Raikhel N (2004) The Cell Wall Navigator database. A systems-based approach to organism-unrestricted mining of protein families involved in cell wall metabolism. Plant Physiol 136: 3003–3008[Free Full Text]

Goicoechea M, Lacombe E, Legay S, Mihaljevic S, Rech P, Jauneau A, Lapierre C, Pollet B, Verhaegen D, Chaubet-Gigot N, et al (2005) EgMYB2, a new transcriptional activator from Eucalyptus xylem, regulates secondary cell wall formation and lignin biosynthesis. Plant J 43: 553–567[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Guillet-Claude C, Birolleau-Touchard C, Manicacci D, Rogowsky PM, Rigau J, Murigneux A, Martinant JP, Barrière Y (2004) Nucleotide diversity of the ZmPox3 maize peroxidase gene: relationships between a MITE insertion in exon 2 and variation in forage maize digestibility. BMC Genet 5: 19[CrossRef][Medline]

Halpin C, Holt K, Chojecki J, Oliver D, Chabbert B, Monties B, Edwards K, Barakate A, Foxon GA (1998) Brown-midrib maize (bm1)—a mutation affecting the cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Plant J 14: 545–553[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Hamberger B, Hahlbrock K (2004) The 4-coumarate:CoA ligase gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana comprises one rare, sinapate-activating and three commonly occurring isoenzymes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101: 2209–2214[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Harding SA, Leshkevich J, Chiang VL, Tsai CJ (2002) Differential substrate inhibition couples kinetically distinct 4-coumarate:coenzyme a ligases with spatially distinct metabolic roles in quaking aspen. Plant Physiol 128: 428–438[Abstract/Free Full Text]

He X, Hall MB, Gallo-Meagher M, Smith RL (2003) Improvement of forage quality by down regulation of maize O-methyltransferase. Crop Sci 43: 2240–2251[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Henrissat B, Coutinho PM, Davies GJ (2001) A census of carbohydrate-active enzymes in the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Mol Biol 47: 55–72[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Hertzberg M, Aspeborg H, Schrader J, Andersson A, Erlandsson R, Blomqvist K, Bhalerao R, Uhlen M, Teeri TT, Lundeberg J, et al (2001) A transcriptional roadmap to wood formation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98: 14732–14737[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Hoffmann L, Maury S, Martz F, Geoffroy P, Legrand M (2003) Purification, cloning, and properties of an acyltransferase controlling shikimate and quinate ester intermediates in phenylpropanoid metabolism. J Biol Chem 278: 95–103[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Holland N, Holland D, Helentjaris T, Dhugga KS, Xoconostle-Cazares B, Delmer DP (2000) A comparative analysis of the plant cellulose synthase (CesA) gene family. Plant Physiol 123: 1313–1324[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Hu WJ, Kawaoka A, Tsai CJ, Lung J, Osakabe K, Ebinuma H, Chiang VL (1998) Compartmentalized expression of two structurally and functionally distinct 4-coumarate:CoA ligase genes in aspen (Populus tremuloides). Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 5407–5412[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Humphreys JM, Hemm MR, Chapple C (1999) New routes for lignin biosynthesis defined by biochemical characterization of recombinant ferulate 5-hydroxylase, a multifunctional cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96: 10045–10050[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Jamet E, Canut H, Boudart G, Pont-Lezica RF (2006) Cell wall proteins: a new insight through proteomics. Trends Plant Sci 11: 33–39[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Karpinska B, Karlsson M, Srivastava M, Stenberg A, Schrader J, Sterky F, Bhalerao R, Wingsle G (2004) MYB transcription factors are differentially expressed and regulated during secondary vascular tissue development in hybrid aspen. Plant Mol Biol 56: 255–270[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Knox JP, Linstead PJ, King J, Cooper C, Roberts K (1990) Pectin esterification is spatially regulated both within cell walls and between developing tissues of root apices. Planta 181: 512–521[Web of Science]

Krogh A, Larsson B, von Heijne G, Sonnhammer EL (2001) Predicting transmembrane protein topology with a hidden Markov model: application to complete genomes. J Mol Biol 305: 567–580[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Lapierre C (1993). Application of new methods for investigation of lignin structure. In HG Jung, DR Buxton, RD Hatfield, J Ralph, eds, Forage Cell Wall Structure and Digestibility. American Society of Agriculture, Madison, WI, pp 133–166

Lapierre C, Monties B, Rolando C (1986) Thioacidolysis of poplar lignins: identification of monomeric syringyl products and characterization of guaiacyl-syringyl lignin fractions. Holzforschung 40: 113–118[Web of Science]

Li L, Cheng XF, Leshkevich J, Umezawa T, Harding SA, Chiang VL (2001) The last step of syringyl monolignol biosynthesis in angiosperms is regulated by a novel gene encoding sinapyl alcohol dehydrogenase. Plant Cell 13: 1567–1586[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Méchin V, Argillier O, Rocher F, Hebert Y, Mila I, Pollet B, Barrière Y, Lapierre C (2005) In search of a maize ideotype for cell wall enzymatic degradability using histological and biochemical lignin characterization. J Agric Food Chem 53: 5872–5881[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Meijer AH, Lopes Cardoso MI, Voskuilen JT, de Waal A, Verpoorte R, Hoge JH (1993) Isolation and characterization of a cDNA clone from Catharanthus roseus encoding NADPH:cytochrome P-450 reductase, an enzyme essential for reactions catalysed by cytochrome P-450 monooxygenases in plants. Plant J 4: 47–60[Medline]

Meyer K, Shirley AM, Cusumano JC, Bell-Lelong DA, Chapple C (1998) Lignin monomer composition is determined by the expression of a cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95: 6619–6623[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Milioni D, Sado PE, Stacey NJ, Roberts K, McCann MC (2002) Early gene expression associated with the commitment and differentiation of a plant tracheary element is revealed by cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis. Plant Cell 14: 2813–2824[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Mitchell HJ, Hall SA, Stratford R, Hall JL, Barber MS (1999) Differential induction of cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase during defensive lignification in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): characterisation of the major inducible form. Planta 208: 31–37[CrossRef][Web of Science]

Mizutani M, Ohta D, Sato R (1997) Isolation of a cDNA and a genomic clone encoding cinnamate 4-hydroxylase from Arabidopsis and its expression manner in planta. Plant Physiol 113: 755–763[Abstract]

Moreau C, Aksenov N, Lorenzo MG, Segerman B, Funk C, Nilsson P, Jansson S, Tuominen H (2005) A genomic approach to investigate developmental cell death in woody tissues of Populus trees. Genome Biol 6: 22[Medline]

Morgenstern B (1999) DIALIGN 2: improvement of the segment-to-segment approach to multiple sequence alignment. Bioinformatics 3: 211–218

Nakai K, Horton P (1999) PSORT: a program for detecting sorting signals in proteins and predicting their subcellular localization. Trends Biochem Sci 24: 34–36[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Nakano J, Meshitsuka G (1992) The detection of lignin. In CW Dence, SY Lin, eds, Methods in Lignin Chemistry. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 23–61

Osakabe K, Tsao CC, Li L, Popko JL, Umezawa T, Carraway DT, Smeltzer RH, Joshi CP, Chiang VL (1999) Coniferyl aldehyde 5-hydroxylation and methylation direct syringyl lignin biosynthesis in angiosperms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96: 8955–8960[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Otte O, Barz W (2000) Characterization and oxidative in vitro cross-linking of an extensin-like protein and a proline-rich protein purified from chickpea cell walls. Phytochemistry 53: 1–5[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Parvathi K, Chen F, Guo D, Blount JW, Dixon RA (2001) Substrate preferences of O-methyltransferases in alfalfa suggest new pathways for 3-O-methylation of monolignols. Plant J 25: 193–202[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Pavy N, Laroche J, Bousquet J, Mackay J (2005) Large-scale statistical analysis of secondary xylem ESTs in pine. Plant Mol Biol 57: 203–224[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Pesquet E, Ranocha P, Legay S, Digonnet C, Barbier O, Pichon M, Goffner D (2005) Novel markers of xylogenesis in zinnia are differentially regulated by auxin and cytokinin. Plant Physiol 139: 1821–1839[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Pichon M, Courbou I, Beckert M, Boudet AM, Grima-Pettenati J (1998) Cloning and characterization of two maize cDNAs encoding cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) and differential expression of the corresponding genes. Plant Mol Biol 38: 671–676[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Pinçon G, Maury S, Hoffmann L, Geoffroy P, Lapierre C, Pollet B, Legrand M (2001) Repression of O-methyltransferase genes in transgenic tobacco affects lignin synthesis and plant growth. Phytochemistry 57: 1167–1176[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Piquemal J, Chamayou S, Nadaud I, Beckert M, Barrière Y, Mila I, Lapierre C, Rigau J, Puigdomenech P, Jauneau A, et al (2002) Down-regulation of caffeic acid O-methyltransferase in maize revisited using a transgenic approach. Plant Physiol 130: 1675–1685[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Poroyko V, Hejlek LG, Spollen WG, Springer GK, Nguyen HT, Sharp RE, Bohnert HJ (2005) The maize root transcriptome by serial analysis of gene expression. Plant Physiol 138: 1700–1710[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Puigdomenech PC, Perez P, Murigneux A, Martinant JP, Tixier MH, Rigau J, Civardi L, Maes T, inventors. August 2, 2001. Identifying genes associated with a qtl corn digestibility locus. Patent WO 0155395-A 1,3

Raes J, Rohde A, Christensen JH, Van de Peer Y, Boerjan W (2003) Genome-wide characterization of the lignification toolbox in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 133: 1051–1071[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Ragueh F, Lescure N, Roby D, Marco Y (1989) Gene expression in Nicotiana tabacum in response to compatible and incompatible isolates of Pseudomonas solonacearum. Physiol Mol Plant Pathol 35: 23–33[CrossRef]

Rice P, Longden I, Bleasby A (2000) EMBOSS: the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite. Trends Genet 16: 276–277[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Rodriguez-Galvez E, Mendgen K (1995) Cell wall synthesis in cotton roots after infection with Fusarium oxysporum. The deposition of callose, arabinogalactans, xyloglucans, and pectic components into walls, wall appositions, cell plates and plasmodesmata. Planta 197: 535–545[Web of Science][Medline]

Rösler J, Krekel F, Amrhein N, Schmid J (1997) Maize phenylalanine ammonia-lyase has tyrosine ammonia-lyase activity. Plant Physiol 113: 175–179[Abstract]

Rozen S, Skaletsky H (2000) Primer3 on the WWW for general users and for biologist programmers. Methods Mol Biol 132: 365–386[Medline]

Ruegger M, Meyer K, Cusumano JC, Chapple C (1999) Regulation of ferulate-5-hydroxylase expression in Arabidopsis in the context of sinapate ester biosynthesis. Plant Physiol 119: 101–110[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Samson D, Legeai F, Karsenty E, Reboux S, Veyrieras JB, Just J, Barillot E (2003) GénoPlanteInfo (GPI): a collection of databases and bioinformatics resources for plant genomics. Nucleic Acids Res 31: 179–182[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Scarpella E, Meijer AH (2004) Pattern formation in the vascular system of monocot and dicot plant species. New Phytol 164: 209–242[CrossRef]

Schoch G, Goepfert S, Morant M, Hehn A, Meyer D, Ullmann P, Werck-Reichhart D (2001) CYP98A3 from Arabidopsis thaliana is a 3'-hydroxylase of phenolic esters, a missing link in the phenylpropanoid pathway. J Biol Chem 276: 36566–36574[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Schoof H, Zaccaria P, Gundlach H, Lemcke K, Rudd S, Kolesov G, Arnold R, Mewes HW, Mayer KF (2002) MIPS Arabidopsis thaliana Database (MAtDB): an integrated biological knowledge resource based on the first complete plant genome. Nucleic Acids Res 30: 91–93[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Schultz J, Copley RR, Doerks T, Ponting CP, Bork P (2000) SMART: a web-based tool for the study of genetically mobile domains. Nucleic Acids Res 28: 231–234[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Schwacke R, Schneider A, van der Graaff E, Fischer K, Catoni E, Desimone M, Frommer WB, Flugge UI, Kunze R (2003) ARAMEMNON, a novel database for Arabidopsis integral membrane proteins. Plant Physiol 131: 16–26[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Scobbie L, Russel W, Provan GJ, Chesson A (1993) The newly extended maize internode, a model for the study of secondary cell wall formation and consequences for digestibility. J Sci Food Agric 61: 217–225[CrossRef][Web of Science]

Sibout R, Eudes A, Mouille G, Pollet B, Lapierre C, Jouanin L, Seguin A (2005) CINNAMYL ALCOHOL DEHYDROGENASE-C and -D are the primary genes involved in lignin biosynthesis in the floral stem of Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 17: 2059–2076[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Sigrist CJ, Cerutti L, Hulo N, Gattiker A, Falquet L, Pagni M, Bairoch A, Bucher P (2002) PROSITE: a documented database using patterns and profiles as motif descriptors. Brief Bioinform 3: 265–274[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Small I, Peeters N, Legeai F, Lurin C (2004) Predotar: A tool for rapidly screening proteomes for N-terminal targeting sequences. Proteomics 4: 1581–1590

Taylor NG, Scheible WR, Cutler S, Somerville CR, Turner SR (1999) The irregular xylem3 locus of Arabidopsis encodes a cellulose synthase required for secondary cell wall synthesis. Plant Cell 11: 769–780[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) CLUSTALW: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22: 4673–4680[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Vignols F, Rigau J, Torres MA, Capellades M, Puigdomenech P (1995) The brown midrib3 (bm3) mutation in maize occurs in the gene encoding caffeic acid O-methyltransferase. Plant Cell 7: 407–416[Abstract]

Wu Y, Sharp RE, Durachko DM, Cosgrove DJ (1996) Growth maintenance of the maize primary root at low water potentials involves increases in cell-wall extension properties, expansin activity, and wall susceptibility to expansins. Plant Physiol 111: 765–772[Abstract]

Wu Y, Spollen WG, Sharp RE, Hetherington PR, Fry SC (1994) Root growth maintenance at low water potentials (increased activity of xyloglucan endotransglycosylase and its possible regulation by abscisic acid). Plant Physiol 106: 607–615[Abstract]

Yokoyama R, Nishitani K (2004) Genomic basis for cell-wall diversity in plants. A comparative approach to gene families in rice and Arabidopsis. Plant Cell Physiol 45: 1111–1121[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Zeier J, Ruel K, Ryser U, Schreiber L (1999) Chemical analysis and immunolocalisation of lignin and suberin in endodermal and hypodermal/rhizodermal cell walls of developing maize (Zea mays L.) primary roots. Planta 209: 1–12[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Zhao C, Craig JC, Petzold HE, Dickerman AW, Beers EP (2005) The xylem and phloem transcriptomes from secondary tissues of the Arabidopsis root-hypocotyl. Plant Physiol 138: 803–818[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Zhong R, Iii WH, Negrel J, Ye ZH (1998) Dual methylation pathways in lignin biosynthesis. Plant Cell 10: 2033–2046[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Zhu J, Chen S, Alvarez S, Asirvatham VS, Schachtman DP, Wu Y, Sharp RE (2006) Cell wall proteome in the maize primary root elongation zone. I. Extraction and identification of water-soluble and lightly ionically bound proteins. Plant Physiol 140: 311–325[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Zhu Q, Dabi T, Beeche A, Yamamoto R, Lawton MA, Lamb C (1995) Cloning and properties of a rice gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase. Plant Mol Biol 29: 535–550[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. W. Penning, C. T. Hunter III, R. Tayengwa, A. L. Eveland, C. K. Dugard, A. T. Olek, W. Vermerris, K. E. Koch, D. R. McCarty, M. F. Davis, et al. Genetic Resources for Maize Cell Wall Biology Plant Physiology, December 1, 2009; 151(4): 1703 - 1728. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Saballos, G. Ejeta, E. Sanchez, C. Kang, and W. Vermerris A Genomewide Analysis of the Cinnamyl Alcohol Dehydrogenase Family in Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Identifies SbCAD2 as the Brown midrib6 Gene Genetics, February 1, 2009; 181(2): 783 - 795. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Riboulet, S. Guillaumie, V. Mechin, M. Bosio, M. Pichon, D. Goffner, C. Lapierre, B. Pollet, B. Lefevre, J. P. Martinant, et al. Kinetics of Phenylpropanoid Gene Expression in Maize Growing Internodes: Relationships with Cell Wall Deposition Crop Sci., January 28, 2009; 49(1): 211 - 223. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 143/1/339    most recent pp.106.086405v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Web of Science (10) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D. Agricola Articles by Guillaumie, S. Articles by Goffner, D.