Carbohydrate Storage and Mobilisation by the Culm of Wheat Between Heading and Grain Maturity: the Relation to Sucrose Synthase and Sucrose-Phosphate Synthase

Wheat plants grown under non-stress conditions at a dayhight temperature of 18/13ºC under glasshouse conditions from head emergence to maturity showed a maximum accumulation of water-soluble, non-structural carbohydrates 20-25 days after anthesis. This storage was largely as fructans with the timing and amount of storage and mobilisation varying between cultivars, although the maximum concentration (fructose equivalents per unit stem fresh weight) was similar in all cultivars. The main storage in the culm was located in the lower part of the peduncle enclosed by the flag leaf sheath, in the penultimate internode and for one cultivar also in the flag leaf sheath. 14CO2 pulse-chase studies showed that there was a considerable delay in the incorporation of flag leaf assimilates into stem fructans, a delay probably associated with transfer and metabolic processes in the stem itself. At anthesis, when soluble carbohydrates were rapidly accumulating in the culm, the level of activity of sucrose synthase (SS) in the penultimate internode was much greater than that of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS). The activity of SS declined rapidly as active storage ceased. This pattern was the reverse of that found in the leaf where SPS, rather than SS, was initially high and declined towards maturity. These changes are discussed in relation to the possible role of sucrose synthesising enzymes, particularly SS, in the accumulation and mobilisation of stem reserves in wheat.