SREL Reprint #3450

A quantitative method for analyzing glycome profiles of plant cell walls

Sivakumar Pattathil1, Miles W. Ingwers2, Doug P. Aubrey3,4, Zenglu Li2, and Joseph Dahlen3

1Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
2Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics/ Department of Crop and Soil Sciences,
University of Georgia, Athens, USA
3Daniel B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
4Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, USA

Abstract: Glycome profiling allows for the characterization of plant cell wall ultrastructure via sequential extractions and subsequent detection of specific epitopes with a suite of glycan-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The data are often viewed as the amount of materials recovered and coinciding colored heatmaps of mAb binding are generated. Interpretation of these data can be considered qualitative in nature as it depends on detecting subtle visual differences in antibody binding strength. Here, we report a mixed model-based quantitative approach for glycome profile analyses, which accounts for the amount of materials recovered and displays the normalized values in revised heatmaps and statistical heatmaps depicting significant differences. The utility of this methodology was demonstrated on a previously published dataset investigating the effects of moisture stress on the roots and needles of Pinus taeda. An annotated R script for the quantitative methodology is included to allow future studies to utilize the same approach.

Keywords: Cell walls, Moisture stress, Monoclonal antibodies, Pinus taeda, Xylan, Pectin, Xyloglucans

SREL Reprint #3450

Pattathil, S., M. W. Ingwers, D. P. Aubrey, Z. Li, and J. Dahlen. 2017. A quantitative method for analyzing glycome profiles of plant cell walls. Carbohydrate Research 448(2017): 128-135.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).