Klaus Herburger

Klaus Herburger says: “Plant cells are surrounded by cell walls, which are complex networks of polysaccharides and provide the structural backbone of plants. As such, cell walls constitute the bulk of green biomass and are a fundamental natural resource for our society, including food, fodder, fibres, and fuel. Cell walls are highly dynamic structures and constantly remodelled by various proteins to make the cell wall more rigid or expand it when plants grow. This project aims to understand how these proteins work together in living plants and then to engineer them to enhance the strength of cell walls, for example by introducing additional crosslinks between polysaccharides. Such plants will be more resistant to tissue failure caused by wind or water lodging. Thus, this project may provide means to strongly reduce major causes of crop failure and stronger cell wall biomass that can be used for a vast number of applications, such as superior construction materials.”