This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA's rich science and research portfolio.
One of the keys to improving biofuel production is to understand how plants are made and function. Two researchers from the University of Georgia (UGA) have made strides in understanding how plant cell walls are made, opening a new door to converting plants to biofuels and other carbon-based products.
UGA researcher Debra Mohnen and her team discovered that two proteins (GAUT1 and GAUT7) come together in an unexpected way to make a carbohydrate, or a chain of sugar molecules, in plant cell walls. The work was funded through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
