Growth Characteristics, Grain Filling, and Assimilate Transport in a Shrunken Endosperm Mutant of Barley

Abstract

The reported inheritance pattern of the seg1 shrunken endosperm mutant of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Betzes) suggests that some defective process in the maternal plant tissues, and not in the endosperm, prevents normal grain filling in the mutant. To identify the physiological mechanism of the mutation, we compared growth, carbon exchange, and assimilate transport of Betzes and seg1 plants. Betzes and seg1 plants did not differ in mean relative growth rate, mean net assimilation rate, or carbon exchange rate. The rate and duration of grain growth of seg1 was lower than Betzes on intact plants and on detached, cultured spikes. Increasing the supply of sucrose in culture media up to 300 mm sucrose did not eliminate differences between normal and mutant grain growth. Translocation of (14)C-labeled assimilates into seg1 grains ceased by 21 days after anthesis, and assimilates were diverted to lower plant parts. In contrast, assimilates were still entering Betzes grains at 29 days after anthesis. Evidence suggests that some maternal spike or grain tissue is affected by the mutation after the onset of grain filling. Identification of the specific seg1 defect may provide information about the cessation of normal grain filling.