Abstract
The aim of this work was to discover why pea (Pisum sativum L.) embryos recessive at ther locus (rr) have a higher lipid content than embryos dominant at this locus (RR). Ther locus is a gene encoding starch-branching enzyme,rr embryos have a much lower activity of this enzyme thanRR embryos, and hence a reduced rate of starch synthesis. The higher lipid content ofrr embryos must be a consequence of this. We suggest that neither differences in the availability of substrate for lipid synthesis as a consequence of different rates of starch synthesis, nor differences in the capacity of the pathway for malonyl-CoA synthesis, account for the different lipid contents ofRR andrr embryos. Lipid contents of the two sorts of embryo first diverge at a much later stage in development than divergence in starch content. Amounts of pyruvate and acetate, and activities of enzymes that convert triose phosphate to malonyl CoA are the same in the two sorts of embryo. Most of the lipid in developing embryos is polar, structural lipid, and polar lipid accounts for a large proportion of the difference in lipid content between the two sorts of embryo. This difference in structural-lipid content reflects considerable structural differences between the two sorts of embryo and is presumably the consequence of differences in rates of lipid turnover.
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Abbreviations
- DW:
-
dry weight
- FW:
-
fresh weight
- FAME:
-
fatty-acid methyl esters
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This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Agricultural and Food Research Council to the John Innes Institute. We are very grateful to Alan Jones for his valuable advice on lipid analysis and to Dr. Kay Denyer (Advanced Technologies, Cambridge, UK) for valuable discussions. We thank Dr. Cliff Hedley for the gift of the seed of the peas used in this work.
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Bettey, M., Smith, A.M. Nature of the effect of ther locus on the lipid content of embryos of peas (Pisum sativum L.). Planta 180, 420–428 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01160399
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01160399