The role of starch, sucrose and triose phosphates in the source-sink relationship of soybean(Glycine max L. Merrill)

Abstract

In a determination of starch, sucrose and triose phosphate in a whole cell homogenate sample and nonaqueously isolated chloroplast sample from plants of different source-sink ratios, the amounts of starch in chloroplasts, the number of starch granules per chloroplast and their size in the sink limited treatment were significantly higher than in the source limited and normal treatments. Thus it could be concluded that starch acts as a messenger from sink to source and thereby act as a regulartor of source-sink relationships. Although there are some indication of regulation by triose phosphate and sucrose their role is less clear.