Dr. Xinhui An

Land plants represent the largest portion of biomass on our planet, with lignocellulosic cell walls serving as the primary carbon sinks in these plants. Despite their crucial role, the mechanisms regulating carbon allocation towards plant cell wall polysaccharides remain largely unknown.

My research project aims to I) reconstruct the biosynthesis of plant cell wall polysaccharides in prokaryotic photosynthetic cyanobacteria and in a CO₂-fixing eukaryotic system due to the challenges posed by multicellular plants such as structural complexity, genetic redundancy; II) identify factors that influence carbon-allocation towards plant cell wall polysaccharides.