The developing cereal grain accumulates large quantities of proteins which are unique to the endosperm tissue. The DNA sequences which determine their endosperm-specific expression have not yet been identified. In the absence of a suitable transformation-regeneration system for cereals, we have investigated whether chimaeric genes consisting of low mol. wt (LMW) and high mol. wt (HMW) glutenin ...

The embryo and endosperm are the products of double fertilization and comprise the clonally distinct products of angiosperm seed development. Recessive mutations in the maize gene discolored1 (dsc1) condition inviable seed that are defective in both embryo and endosperm development. Here, detailed phenotypic analyses illustrate that discolored mutant kernels are able to establish, but fail to m...

We investigated the effects of human selection for yellow endosperm color, representing increased carotenoid content, on two maize genes, the Y1 phytoene synthase and PSY2, a putative second phytoene synthase. Multiple polymorphic sites were identified at Y1 and PSY2 in 75 white and yellow maize inbred lines. Many polymorphic sites showed strong association with the endosperm color phenotype at...

Distinct forms of cytokinesis characterise specific phases of development in plants. In Arabidopsis, as in many other species, the endosperm that nurtures the embryo in the seed initially develops as a syncytium. This syncytial phase ends with simultaneous partitioning of the multinucleate cytoplasm into individual cells, a process referred to as cellularisation. Our in vivo observations show t...

Kernels of wild-type maize (Zea mays L.) shrunken-1 (sh1), deficient in the predominant form of endosperm sucrose synthase and shrunken-2 (sh2), deficient in 95% of the endosperm ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase were grown in culture on sucrose, glucose, or fructose as the carbon source. Analysis of the endosperm extracts by gas-liquid chromatography revealed that sucrose was present in the endosp...

Seed shriveling in the man-made intergeneric hybrid, triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) appears to be related to increased activity of endosperm acid phosphatases including para-nitrophenyl phosphatase, ATPase, ADPase, phosphatidic phosphatase, and glucose-1-phosphatase that occur specifically at later stages of seed development. These hydrolases may reduce endogenous substrates for starch sy...

1. The composition of the sterol ester fraction of the shoot, root, scutellum and endosperm of 10-day-old maize seedlings was investigated. 2. The scutellum and endosperm together contain 80% of the sterol ester of the seedling. 3. beta-Sitosteryl linoleate is the major sterol ester of the scutellum and endosperm. 4. beta-Sitosteryl and stigmasteryl palmitate, palmitoleate, oleate and linoleate...

Glyoxysomes, a form of microbody, are present in castor bean endosperm during the first 8 days of seed germination. They have a "typical" microbody form and are shown histochemically to contain catalase. The catalase label is distributed throughout the microbody and is not an exclusive feature of the crystalline or amorphous core.Castor bean endosperm contain a second cytosome, only slightly la...

Degradation of the major storage proteins in maize endosperm, zein and glutelin, begins during the 2nd day of germination. The protein most abundant in the mature endosperm is degraded most rapidly. The patterns of protein loss are essentially similar in germinating seeds and excised endosperms. Cycloheximide, added at the beginning of the incubation period, prevents the development of alpha-am...