Amino Acid Composition Along the Transport Pathway during Grain Filling in Wheat

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The amino acid composition of endosperm cavity sap and of sieve tube saps from the flag leaf, peduncle, rachis, grain pedicel, and grain were determined for wheat plants just past the mid-half of grain filling. On a mole percent basis, glutamine accounted for almost half of the amino acids in sieve tube sap from the peduncle and ear. Other protein amino acids, plug gamma-aminobutyrate, were present in varying, but mostly low (a few mole percent) proportions. The amino acid composition of phloem exudate resembled that of the mature wheat grain. The proportions of amino acids in the endosperm cavity were generally similar to those of the sieve tube sap supplying the grain. Cysteine, however, while virtually absent from sieve tube sap, comprised 1 to 2 mole percent of amino acids in the endosperm cavity, suggesting it is transported in a different form. Also, alanine and, to a lesser extent, glutamate were relatively more prominent in endosperm cavity sap than in the sieve tube sap. Thus, while most amino acids were more concentrated in the sieve tube sap than in the endosperm cavity sap, alanine and glutamate appeared to be moving from the sieve tube to the endosperm cavity in the absence of, or perhaps even against, their concentration gradients.