Background Myxospermy is a process by which the external surfaces of seeds of many plant species produce mucilage-a polysaccharide-rich gel with numerous fundamental research and industrial applications. Due to its functional properties the mucilage can be difficult to remove from the seed and established methods for mucilage extraction are often incomplete, time-consuming and unnecessarily wasteful of precious seed stocks. Results Here we tested the efficacy of several established protocols for seed mucilage extraction and then downsized and adapted the most effective elements into a rapid, small-scale extraction and analysis pipeline. Within 4 h, three chemically- and functionally-distinct mucilage fractions were obtained from myxospermous seeds. These fractions were used to study natural variation and demonstrate structure-function links, to screen for known mucilage quality markers in a field trial, and to identify research and industry-relevant lines from a large mutant population. Conclusion The use of this pipeline allows rapid analysis of mucilage characteristics from diverse myxospermous germplasm which can contribute to fundamental research into mucilage production and properties, quality testing for industrial manufacturing, and progressing breeding efforts in myxospermous crops.

中文翻译：

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用于快速分析种子粘液特性的小规模分馏管道。

背景 粘液精子是许多植物物种种子的外表面产生粘液的过程——一种富含多糖的凝胶，具有许多基础研究和工业应用。由于其功能特性，粘液可能难以从种子中去除，并且已建立的粘液提取方法通常不完整、耗时且不必要地浪费宝贵的种子储备。结果 在这里，我们测试了几种已建立的种子粘液提取方案的功效，然后将最有效的元素缩小并调整到快速、小规模的提取和分析流程中。在 4 小时内，从粘精种子中获得了三种化学上和功能上不同的粘液部分。这些分数用于研究自然变异并展示结构-功能联系，在田间试验中筛选已知的粘液质量标记，并从大量突变群体中识别研究和行业相关系。结论 使用该管道可以快速分析来自不同粘精子种质的粘液特性，这有助于对粘液生产和特性的基础研究、工业制造的质量测试以及推进粘精子作物的育种工作。