Abstract
This paper describes new information, derived from studies of mutant and transgenic plants, about the synthesis and organisation of the two polymers, amylose and amylopectin, that make up the starch granule.
The organisation of amylopectin molecules to form the matrix of the granule is made possible by the fact that the polymer has a polymodal distribution of branch lengths. It has been suggested that this distribution is brought about through the actions of two different isoforms of starch-branching enzyme with different properties, but data from mutant plants with only one isoform of starch-branching enzyme are not consistent with this idea. Studies of mutant and transgenic plants lacking specific isoforms of starch synthase indicate that individual isoforms of this enzyme play distinct roles in amylopectin synthesis. However, the contributions of particular classes of isoform appears to differ from one organ to another. Recent work on mutations that decrease debranching enzyme and lead to the production of highly-branched phytoglycogen has generated a new model for amylopectin synthesis. The validity of the model is discussed.
The synthesis of amylose is a function of a specific class of granule-bound starch synthases, but the mechanism of synthesis is unknown. New data indicate that amylose synthesis within the starch granule requires the presence of soluble malto-oligosaccharides. The generation of malto-oligosaccharides via a debranching enzyme putatively involved in amylopectin synthesis presents a means by which the synthesis of the two sorts of polymer might be integrated.
A further means by which amylose and amylopectin synthesis may interact is suggested by the relationship — observed across a range of mutant plants with lesions in the pathway from sucrose to ADPglucose — between the rate of starch synthesis and the amylose to amylopectin ratio of the starch. It seems likely that changes in ADPglucose concentration have different effects on the synthesis of the two polymers. Factors that control flux through the pathway of starch synthesis may therefore also affect starch structure. The control of flux through the pathway is not properly understood, but is likely to differ from one organ to another. This is highlighted by the recent discovery that ADPglucose pyrophosphorylase — a enzyme considered to be plastidic in most plant organs — is located primarily outside the plastid in the endosperms of some cereals.
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Smith, A.M. (1999). Regulation of starch synthesis in storage organs. In: Kruger, N.J., Hill, S.A., Ratcliffe, R.G. (eds) Regulation of Primary Metabolic Pathways in Plants. Proceedings of the Phytochemical Society of Europe, vol 42. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4818-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4818-4_9
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