By Jean-Paul MacDonald
Farms.com
Clint Chapple and his team from Purdue University studied lignin, a basic plant fiber. Lignin is usually seen as just a structural component, but recent experiments suggest it might affect plant growth more than we thought.
Primarily recognized for its role in industries like pulp and paper, Chapple's team has been exploring lignin's potential in biofuels. Their research, focused on the experimental plant Arabidopsis thaliana, took an unexpected turn when certain manipulations led to diminutive plants.
This led Fabiola Muro-Villanueva to investigate further. Her rigorous experiments pointed to pinoresinol, a compound previously believed to only serve as a lignin building block, as a potential growth influencer.