We were wrong! Using advanced techniques to reveal how cellulose-inhibiting herbicides actually work

Cell walls are sugar coats surrounding every plant cell and constitute Earth’s major carbon sink. Food (fruit, vegetables), fuel (wood, biofuel), shelter (construction materials), and clothing (cotton, linen) are essential products made of cell walls. Hence, cell wall synthesis and regulation are major research topics to engineer improved plants.

Cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors (CBIs) are prominent agricultural herbicides that kill plants by halting the production of cellulose (the major cell wall sugar). They are invaluable molecular tools used by scientists to study cell wall regulation. I recently uncovered that long-held beliefs on CBIs are likely wrong; instead of directly targeting cellulose synthesis enzymes, CBIs likely target completely different enzymes. To prove this, I will exploit cutting-edge techniques to reveal the true CBI enzyme target(s). This will cause a major disruption in our understanding of cell wall regulation and herbicide development, triggering reinterpretation of countless studies that used CBIs as major tools.  Techniques developed in this study will also be invaluable in characterizing targets of nearly any compound used in plant research.