August 5, 2019
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Article

Functional characterization of genes mediating cell wall metabolism and responses to plant cell wall integrity impairment

Publicated to: BMC PLANT BIOLOGY. 19 (320): 320- - 2019-07-18 19(320), DOI: 10.1186/s12870-019-1934-4

Authors:

Engelsdoe, T; Kjaer, L; Gigli-Bisceglia, N; Vaahtera, L; Bauer, S; Miedes, E; Wormit, A; James, L; Chairam, I; Molina, A; Hamann, T
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Affiliations

Agr Dev & Advisory Serv, Battlegate Rd - Author
IAEA, Dept Nucl Safety & Secur, Vienna Int Ctr, POB 100 - Author
Imperial Coll London, Dept Life Sci, Div Cell & Mol Biol, Sir Alexander Fleming Bldg - Author
Interacciones Moleculares Planta-Patógeno. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author
Norwegian Univ Sci & Technol, Fac Nat Sci, Inst Biol, 5 Hogskoleringen - Author
Philipps Univ Marburg, Dept Biol, Div Plant Physiol - Author
Rhein Westfal TH Aachen, Inst Biol 1, Worringerweg 3 - Author
Sjaelland Erhvervsakad, Breddahlsgade Lb - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Escuela Tecn Super Ingn Agron Alimentaria & Biosi, Dept Biotecnol Biol Vegetal - Author
Wageningen Univ & Res, Lab Plant Physiol - Author
Zymergen Inc, 5980 Horton St,Suite 105 - Author
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Abstract

Background: Plant cell walls participate in all plant-environment interactions. Maintaining cell wall integrity (CWI) during these interactions is essential. This realization led to increased interest in CWI and resulted in knowledge regarding early perception and signalling mechanisms active during CWI maintenance. By contrast, knowledge regarding processes mediating changes in cell wall metabolism upon CWI impairment is very limited. Results: To identify genes involved and to investigate their contributions to the processes we selected 23 genes with altered expression in response to CWI impairment and characterized the impact of T-DNA insertions in these genes on cell wall composition using Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Insertions in 14 genes led to cell wall phenotypes detectable by FTIR. A detailed analysis of four genes found that their altered expression upon CWI impairment is dependent on THE1 activity, a key component of CWI maintenance. Phenotypic characterizations of insertion lines suggest that the four genes are required for particular aspects of CWI maintenance, cell wall composition or resistance to Plectosphaerella cucumerina infection in adult plants. Conclusion: Taken together, the results implicate the genes in responses to CWI impairment, cell wall metabolism and/or pathogen defence, thus identifying new molecular components and processes relevant for CWI maintenance.
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Keywords

bioenergy productioncell wallcell wall integritycell wall metabolismcell wall signallingArabidopsisAscomycotaBioenergy productionBiosynthesisCell wallCell wall integrityCell wall metabolismCell wall signallingCellulose synthesisDisease resistanceFeroniaGene expression profilingGene expression regulation, plantGene knockdown techniquesGenes, plantHeterotrimeric g-proteinHost-pathogen interactionsPlant diseasesPlant pathogen-interactionPlasma-membraneReceptor-like kinaseResistanceRootSeedlingsSpectroscopy, fourier transform infraredSynthase

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal BMC PLANT BIOLOGY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 38/234, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.05, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-26, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 18
  • Scopus: 20
  • Europe PMC: 6
  • Google Scholar: 23
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-26:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 78.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 78 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 4.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 4 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/87325/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 143
  • Downloads: 20
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Austria; Denmark; Germany; Netherlands; Norway; United Kingdom; United States of America.

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Awards linked to the item

This work was supported through Gatsby AdHoc funds and a grant from the Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study to T.H. and Chris Somerville. T.E. was supported through a EU Marie Curie Fellowship SUGAROSMO-SIGNALLING and a DFG postdoctoral fellowship (EN 1071/1-1). L.K. was supported by a Ph.D. Fellowship from the Porter Institute at Imperial College. N.G.-B. was supported through the EEA project grant CYTOWALL. L.D. and A.W were supported through postdoctoral fellowships provided by the Porter Institute at Imperial College and I.C. by a PhD fellowship provided by the Royal Thai government. Research by A.M. was supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) grant BIO2015-64077-R. The different funders did not have any role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
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