Suppression of CINNAMOYL-CoA REDUCTASE increases the level of monolignol ferulates incorporated into maize lignins

Table 2 Calculation of the percentage of lignin quantified by DFRC and thioacidolysis

Chemical assay	DFRC	Thioacidolysis
Whole cell-wall sample	50 mg	50 mg
Klason lignin (wt%)	22%	22%
Approximate mass of lignin (wt% Klason lignin × 50 mg wcw)	11,000 µg	11,000 µg
Mass of products quantified (µmol/mg wcw × µg/µmol)	2300 µg	2900 µg
Weight% of lignin detected	21%	26%

Component compositional analysis of lignin by degradative assays, thioacidolysis, and DFRC, only accounts for a portion of the total lignin structure. A calculation approximating the amount of lignin that each of these assays measures can be performed by comparing the weight of the components that are quantified and the amount of Klason lignin in the sample. In this study, wild-type maize rind tissue was ~22% Klason lignin. The detected product was then converted to the weight of the lignin components, i.e., the H, G, S, ML-DHpCA, and ML-DHFA structures are converted into the non-functionalized monolignols and hydroxycinnamic acids. Taking the summation of the weight of these components and dividing mass of lignin gave an approximate weight% of the lignin that was detected. The products of the DFRC analysis of wild-type maize rind tissue in this study accounted for ~21% of the total lignin, whereas the product mix from thioacidolysis accounted for ~26% of the lignin

ISSN: 2731-3654