New Fellows Seminar
Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Cell walls: The skeleton of the plant kingdom
by Professor Antony Bacic

Antony Bacic has a science degree from James Cook University and a PhD from La Trobe University. He is a research leader in the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and is platform convenor of Metabolomics Australia. He is a member of the Victorian Government's Building a bioeconomy working group implementing the Biotechnology Strategic Plan, an executive management committee member of Bioplatforms Australia, the Australian Proteomics Computational Facility management committee, on the Integrative Neuroscience Facility platform management committee, the Maud Gibson Trust for the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, is on the editorial boards of the journals Glycobiology, Plant Physiology, Planta and Plant and Cell Physiology, andis a Director of several small biotech companies.

Plant cell walls are vital to plant growth and development because they are the 'skeletons of the plant kingdom' and involved in cell-cell signalling, transport and resistance to attack by pathogens. They are also of major importance to humans: as constituents that determine many of the quality characteristics of cereal grains and food products (eg baking, brewing, digestibility, dietary fibre, functional foods) and as the major source of renewal biomass on the planet. As such, plant cell walls are major building materials (eg timber), sources of paper and textiles (cotton) and the starting materials for biofuels (bioethanol) and the new bio-based economy. Whilst we have a deep knowledge of the structure of individual cell wall polymers, our understanding of how they are assembled within the cell and then deposited into the cell wall, and their role in biological processes, is still rudimentary. My research has contributed to furthering our understanding of the structure, function and biosynthesis of these complex carbohydrate components of plant cell walls.