The present invention provides compositions and methods for manipulation of plant arabinoxylose and plant xylan synthases. Compositions include novel nucleotide sequences encoding xylan synthases and biologically active variants thereof. The invention also includes the discovery xylan synthase activity is a property of CslA polypeptides. Further provided are methods for xylose manipulation using the sequences disclosed herein. One method comprises stably incorporating into the genome of a plant cell, a CslA encoding nucleotide sequence operably linked to a heterologous promoter and regenerating a stably transformed plant. Methods for enhancing digestibility of plants and improving gum production in plants are also provided.