Fig. 1

Biomass lacking xylan–[Me]GlcA decorations has reduced recalcitrance and is a superior feedstock for bioethanol production. Average d-glucose (a) and d-xylose (b) release following saccharification of WT, tbl29, gxm1/2/3 and gux1/2 AIR. d-glucose (c) and d-xylose release (d) from WT and gux1/2 milled dried stems. Ethanol concentration after 96 h of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of WT and gux1/2 biomass (e). Ethanol yields were standardised for the readings from a fermentation reaction which did not include saccharification enzymes (Additional file 7: Table S1). Error bars represent standard deviation of three matching WT and mutant biological replicates of biomass, *p value ≤0.05; **p value ≤0.01; ***p value ≤0.001