Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- List of cDNA clones, genes, protein products, and mutants
- 1 Reproductive biology of angiosperms: retrospect and prospect
- SECTION I GAMETOGENESIS
- SECTION II POLLINATION AND FERTILIZATION
- SECTION III ZYGOTIC EMBRYOGENESIS
- 12 Developmental biology of the endosperm
- 13 Embryogenesis and physiology of growth of embryos
- 14 Genetic and molecular analysis of embryogenesis
- 15 Storage protein synthesis in developing embryos
- SECTION IV ADVENTIVE EMBRYOGENESIS
- SECTION V APPLICATIONS
- References
- Index
15 - Storage protein synthesis in developing embryos
from SECTION III - ZYGOTIC EMBRYOGENESIS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- List of cDNA clones, genes, protein products, and mutants
- 1 Reproductive biology of angiosperms: retrospect and prospect
- SECTION I GAMETOGENESIS
- SECTION II POLLINATION AND FERTILIZATION
- SECTION III ZYGOTIC EMBRYOGENESIS
- 12 Developmental biology of the endosperm
- 13 Embryogenesis and physiology of growth of embryos
- 14 Genetic and molecular analysis of embryogenesis
- 15 Storage protein synthesis in developing embryos
- SECTION IV ADVENTIVE EMBRYOGENESIS
- SECTION V APPLICATIONS
- References
- Index
Summary
As discussed in Chapter 14, the embryo responds to changing genetic and physiological pressures by initiating a series of developmental and molecular changes. These are reflected in the abrupt switch from a period of cell divisions to one of cell expansion, desiccation of cells, changes in growth hormone levels, and synthesis and accumulation of defense-related proteins and storage compounds. Storage materials are constituted primarily of an acervate complex of proteins known as storage proteins, in addition to starch and lipids. Like the endosperm storage products discussed in Chapter 12, embryo storage compounds play an important role in seedling survival by providing the source of carbon and nitrogen skeletons to the embryo during seed germination.
Many aspects of the synthesis of storage proteins during embryogenesis have been investigated using embryos of various agronomically important plants, such as bean, pea, soybean, and rapeseed. What these embryos have in common is that they represent cases in which cellular metabolism of the cotyledons is deflected from a programmed synthesis of housekeeping proteins to one concerned with the production of storage proteins. In recent years, considerable progress has been made toward understanding the regulation of the expression of storage protein genes in plant embryos.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Molecular Embryology of Flowering Plants , pp. 440 - 464Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997
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