In planta Cell Wall Engineering: From Mutants to Artificial Cell Walls.

One option for preventing global warming and preserving the limited fossil fuel resources involves the increased exploitation of plant-based materials and fuels, which would be one of the most important innovations related to sustainable development. Because cell walls account for most of the plant dry biomass, the target of these innovations should be plant cell walls. In this article, recent advances in research regarding in planta cell wall engineering through genetic manipulations are reviewed, with a focus on wild-type-based and mutant-based approaches. The long history of the wild-type-based approach has resulted in the development of many strategies for manipulating lignin, hemicellulose, and pectin to decrease cell wall recalcitrance. In addition to enzyme-encoding genes, many transcription factor genes important for changing relevant cell wall characteristics have been identified. Although mutant-based cell wall engineering is relatively new, it has become a realistic option because of the rapid development of genome-editing technology and systems biology-related research. We will soon enter the age of designed artificial wood production via complex genetic manipulations of many industrially important trees and crops.