The Samuels lab is happy to announce the publication of our new paper in The Plant Cell: Monolignol export by diffusion down a polymerization-induced concentration gradient.
We present evidence for the hypothesis that monolignols can simply diffuse across cell membranes. This hypothesis has been around for many years but had yet to be rigorously tested. Using liposomes it was demonstrated that monolignols could diffuse through bilayer membranes. A multi-photon imaging system was used to quantify lignin and soluble phenolics in living plant roots which lent support to the role of diffusion in real living, lignifying cells.
Our story was fortunate to be highlighted with an "In Brief" editorial in The Plant Cell and is featured on the UBC Botany website. This work was completed by Mendel Perkins, Mathias Schuetz in the Samuels lab and collaborators from the Mansfield, Castellarin and Bally labs. Read the paper here.
