(PhysOrg.com) -- Grains, vegetables and fruit taste delicious and are important sources of energy. However, humans cannot digest the main component of plants - the cellulose in the cell wall. Even in ruminants, animals that can metabolise cellulose, the digestibility of the cell wall plays a crucial role in feed utilisation. Scientists are therefore looking for ways of increasing the digestibility of animal feed, and of utilising plant cell walls to generate energy. To do this they must first understand how plant cells develop their cell walls from cellulose and identify the genes and proteins involved.
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