Fig. 4

Bioinfomatic tools can inform biotechnologists to create plants with preferred chemistries and ultrastructures for industrial fractionation and utilization. The schematic figure demonstrates potential applications for all three of the major secondary cell wall polymers. Hemicelluloses with less substitution can be readily crystallized and used to generate oxygen barrier films; cellulose crystallinity and degree of polymerization can be optimized for nanocellulose isolation for the generation of photonic films of chiral nematic structures of cellulose nanocrystals or high transparency nanofibrillated cellulose materials; lignin with unique monomers or labile linkages can be synthesized to facilitate the isolation of both monomers and/or lignin polymer fractions tailored for spinning fibre and conversion into aerogels and cryogels