The extracellular matrix of plants can contain the hydrophobic biopolymers lignin, suberin and/or cutin, which provide mechanical strength and limit water loss and pathogen invasion. Due to their remarkable chemical resistance, these polymers have a high potential in various biotechnological applications and can replace petrol-based resources, for example, in the packing industry. However, despite the importance of these polymers, the regulation of their precursor biosynthesis is far from being fully understood. This is particularly true for suberin and cutin, which hinders efforts to engineer their formation in plants and produce customised biopolymers. This review brings attention to knowledge gaps in the current research and highlights some of the most recent findings on transcription factors that regulate lignin, suberin and cutin precursor biosynthesis. Finally, we also briefly discuss how some of the remaining knowledge gaps can be closed.

植物的细胞外基质可以含有疏水性生物聚合物木质素、木栓质和/或角质，它们提供机械强度并限制水分流失和病原体入侵。由于其卓越的耐化学性，这些聚合物在各种生物技术应用中具有很高的潜力，并且可以替代以石油为基础的资源，例如在包装行业。然而，尽管这些聚合物很重要，但其前体生物合成的调控仍远未得到充分理解。对于木栓质和角质来说尤其如此，这阻碍了在植物中设计它们的形成和生产定制的生物聚合物的努力。这篇综述引起了人们对当前研究中的知识空白的关注，并强调了一些关于调节木质素的转录因子的最新发现，木栓质和角质前体生物合成。最后，我们还简要讨论了如何弥补一些剩余的知识差距。