Storage and Remobilization of Soluble Carbohydrates after Heading in Different Plant Parts of a Winter Wheat Cultivar

Abstract

Several types of water soluble carbohydrates (WSG) were traced into plant parts of a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar from heading to physiological maturity. Field grown plants were harvested at intervals of a few days and divided into grain, chaff, leaf blades, leaf sheaths, rachis + peduncle and culm internodes. Leaf blades and sheath showed the peak of WSC contents at about anthesis. Culm internodes accumulated fructan and sucrose during the early grain-filling phase, from a week after anthesis until the milk-ripe stage, then remobilized them during late and final grain filling phases, from the milk-ripe stage until maturity. The amount of sucrose known as short-term storage WSC was higher than fructan known as long-term storage WSC in each internode throughout the grain-filling phase. Chaff showed a large amount of fructan and fructose before anthesis, although it did very little sucrose. A pattern of sucrose accumulation in chaff was very different from that of fructan, unlike the other parts. These patterns of changes in WSC contents in plant organs roughly corresponded with four grain-filling phases, the initial, early, late and final phases.