The study frames LBDs as integrators of developmental signals with cell wall remodeling, offering a framework for crop improvement and resilience through controlled secondary growth.

Implications point to potential biotechnological applications to modify wood quality, biomass production, and carbon sequestration by tuning cambial activity and pectin remodeling in economically important species.

The research demonstrates causality by showing that LBD regulation influences PLL activity, which remodels pectin and drives radial growth in the cambium.

The findings open avenues to explore upstream regulatory networks, including hormonal and environmental signals that modulate LBD activity, such as interactions with auxin and cytokinins.

Overexpression of cambium-specific LBDs enhances radial growth with increased PLL activity and pectin remodeling, while LBD knockdowns or PLL inhibition reduce radial expansion and alter cell wall composition.

Methodology combined transcriptomic profiling, enzymatic assays, and in vivo phenotyping in transgenic lines to connect LBD activity, PLL-mediated pectin remodeling, and cambial growth.

Spatial localization of cambium-expressed LBDs and their precise expression patterns highlight the cell-type specificity essential for secondary growth processes.

Overall, the study advances foundational plant science with translational potential for forestry and agriculture by enabling tailored wood properties and increased biomass through targeted modulation of the cambial LBD-PLL-pectin axis.

A Nature Plants study identifies cambium-localized LBD transcription factors as master regulators of radial growth by modulating pectin metabolism through pectin lyase-like (PLL) enzymes, establishing a mechanistic link from transcriptional control to cell wall modification.

Advanced imaging and immunolabeling reveal spatial patterns of pectin methylesterification that align with zones of active division and expansion in the cambial zone, linking pectin modifications to mechanical properties of cambial cells.

LBDs drive the expression of PLLs, leading to pectin remodeling that changes cell wall stiffness and extensibility, balancing rigidity and flexibility in the vascular cambium.