Lignin, a polymer that makes trees rigid and resistant to degradation, has proven problematic. Now those NC State researchers know why. They've identified the specific molecular property of lignin ...

Lignin provided plant cells with the necessary strength to begin growing tall. But that’s hardly all. Lignin is also important in water transport, allowing plants to soak up water through their roots ...

Because lignin limits the use of wood for fiber, chemical, and energy production, strategies for its downregulation are of considerable interest. We have produced transgenic aspen (Populus ...

Trees contain a mix of different polymers, lignin among them. This material is considered a bit of a waste product since it makes it hard to extract components like cellulose fibers from wood ...

The lignin found in poplar trees produces a similar compound, p-hydroxybenzoate (pHB). However, given its complex and irregular molecular structure, lignin is challenging to break down into useful ...

The plant, the tree will make less lignin. So this is our hypothesis. So my lab is really good at genetic engineering and genome editing. So we just apply a technique called base editing to knock out ...

But lignin also “contributes to the structure, integrity and resilience of trees”, says Rodolphe Barrangou also at North Carolina State University. Advertisement ...

When trees inhale carbon, some of it is used to build complex structural molecules like cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Cellulose—durable, ...

H umans have domesticated numerous crops, but trees have largely escaped us. This is because breeding new tree varieties takes many decades. 1 Now, a team has combined machine learning and advanced ...

Lignin, a polymer that makes trees rigid and resistant to degradation, has proven problematic. Now those NC State researchers know why. They've identified the specific molecular property of lignin ...