Chapter 2 Constance Endicott Hartt (1900–1984) and the Path of Carbon in the Sugarcane Leaf

Summary

A short biography of Constance Endicott Hartt is presented here, followed by her research on the biochemical mechanism of sucrose synthesis in the sugarcane leaf. The excellence of her approach led to delineation, in the sugarcane leaf, of much of the path of carbon in photosynthesis and the unique involvement of malic acid in the production of sucrose, two decades before the classic publication by H.P. Kortschak, C. Hartt and G.O. Burr in 1965 (Plant Physiol. 40: 209–213). The impressive contributions of Constance Hartt to plant biological science had been overlooked because of her isolation from the mainstream plant biochemistry and by the passage of time. Not until the 7th International Botanical Congress in Stockholm, 1950, and her participation in the 1958 Plant Physiology annual meeting at Bloomington, Indiana, USA, did she have an opportunity to interact with scientists in the field of sucrose biosynthesis and, even then, not extensively. Her papers, since 1935, published in The Hawaiian Planters’ Record, are no longer widely available. In this Tribute to Constance Hartt, we hope to define her role in developing concepts of the unique process by which the sugarcane leaf produces sugar, besides her contributions to the landmark discovery of unique (now known as C₄) pathway of carbon fixation in sugarcane.