Partial chemical characterization of corn root cell walls

The present study reports on chemical changes which occur in the cell wall of Zea mays during early phases of growth. Roots of seedling corn plants were divided into a meristematic zone, the zone of elongation, and the maturation zone, and the cell wall isolated from each of these zones. The wall preparations were then extracted sequentially to obtain pectin, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin fractions. Each of these, except for the lignin fraction, was hydrolyzed and the resultant sugars isolated, identified, and estimated quantitatively. Quantitative analysis of the products of hydrolysis of these fractions demonstrated that the classical scheme of fractionation is a valuable indicator of the changes in solubility properties which the various polysaccharide components for the wall undergo. It does not however yield definite chemical entities. For example, the “pectin” fraction contains only about 3% galacturonic acid; the bulk of it being composed of glucose, xylose, and galactose. By summation of analysis of these various fractions, it was found that substances yielding glucose and xylose upon hydrolysis increase with advancing age of the tissue. Galactose- and arabinose-yielding compounds decrease and mannose appears during maturation. Anhydrouronic acids first decrease, then increase. Most interestingly, of the total dry weight of the cell wall, only 24, 45, and 50% of the meristematic, elongation, and maturation zones respectively are accounted for as simple sugars in the acid hydrolysates. Oligosaccharides were not encountered in large amounts so that the 50 to 75% of the wall weight unaccounted for would consist of polysaccharides or oligosaccharides not precipitated by ethanol from the extracting solutions employed and by polysaccharides in the hemicellulose fraction which are resistant to acid hydrolysis.