Although lignin is essential to ensure the correct growth and development of land plants, it may be an obstacle to the production of lignocellulosics-based biofuels, and reduces the nutritional quality of crops used for human consumption or livestock feed. The need to tailor the lignocellulosic biomass for more efficient biofuel production or for improved plant digestibility has fostered considerable advances in our understanding of the lignin biosynthetic pathway and its regulation. Most of the described regulators are transcriptional activators of lignin biosynthesis, but considerably less attention has been devoted to the repressors of this pathway. We provide a comprehensive overview of the molecular factors that negatively impact on the lignification process at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels.

尽管木质素对于确保陆地植物的正确生长和发育至关重要，但它可能成为木质纤维素生物燃料生产的障碍，并降低人类食用或牲畜饲料所用作物的营养质量。定制木质纤维素生物质以提高生物燃料生产效率或改善植物消化率的需要，在我们对木质素生物合成途径及其调控的理解上取得了长足的进步。所描述的大多数调节剂都是木质素生物合成的转录激活因子，但对这种途径的阻遏物的关注却很少。我们提供了在转录和转录后水平上对木质化过程产生负面影响的分子因素的全面概述。