{"id":2665,"date":"2020-07-20T12:57:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-20T16:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/?p=2665"},"modified":"2020-07-20T12:57:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T16:57:41","slug":"discovery-reveals-how-plants-make-cellulose-for-strength-and-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/discovery-reveals-how-plants-make-cellulose-for-strength-and-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery Reveals How Plants Make Cellulose For Strength and Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2667\" src=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header.jpg 250w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2020\/07\/plants_header-70x70.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>New research from the\u00a0University of Virginia School of Medicine\u00a0reveals how plants create the load-bearing structures that let them grow\u00a0\u2013\u00a0much like how building crews frame a house.<\/p>\n<p>Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the new discovery unveils the molecular machinery that plants use to weave cellulose chains into cable-like structures called \u201cmicrofibrils.\u201d These microfibrils provide crucial support to the cell walls of land plants and allow them to build up pressure inside their cells. This pressure lets plants grow toward the sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCellulose is the most abundant, naturally produced polymer, and its building block, glucose, is a direct product of photosynthesis that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,\u201d said researcher Jochen Zimmer of UVA\u2019s Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics. \u201cUnderstanding, on a molecular level, how cellulose is produced enables us to tailor its biosynthesis to alter the physical properties of cellulose, optimize carbon sequestration or extract the stored energy to fuel man-made processes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read the full story by Josh Barney at <a href=\"https:\/\/news.virginia.edu\/content\/discovery-reveals-how-plants-make-cellulose-strength-and-growth-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UVA Today, 7\/10\/20<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research from the\u00a0University of Virginia School of Medicine\u00a0reveals how plants create the load-bearing structures that let them grow\u00a0\u2013\u00a0much like how building crews frame a house. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the new discovery unveils the molecular machinery that plants use to weave cellulose chains into cable-like structures called \u201cmicrofibrils.\u201d These microfibrils provide [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-highlights"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Discovery Reveals How Plants Make Cellulose For Strength and Growth - Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/discovery-reveals-how-plants-make-cellulose-for-strength-and-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discovery Reveals How Plants Make Cellulose For Strength and Growth - Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New research from the\u00a0University of Virginia School of Medicine\u00a0reveals how plants create the load-bearing structures that let them grow\u00a0\u2013\u00a0much like how building crews frame a house. 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