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Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(15):4247-4257; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern266
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Carbon partitioning between oil and carbohydrates in developing oat (Avena sativa L.) seeds

Åsa Ekman1,*, Daniel M. Hayden2, Katayoon Dehesh2, Leif Bülow3 and Sten Stymne1

1Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 101, SE-23053 Alnarp, Sweden
2Department of Plant Biology, University of California Davis, CA 95616, USA
3Department of Pure and Applied Biochemistry, Centre for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-22100, Sweden

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: Asa.Ekman{at}ltj.slu.se

Cereals accumulate starch in the endosperm as their major energy reserve in the grain. In most cereals the embryo, scutellum, and aleurone layer are high in oil, but these tissues constitute a very small part of the total seed weight. However, in oat (Avena sativa L.) most of the oil in kernels is deposited in the same endosperm cells that accumulate starch. Thus oat endosperm is a desirable model system to study the metabolic switches responsible for carbon partitioning between oil and starch synthesis. A prerequisite for such investigations is the development of an experimental system for oat that allows for metabolic flux analysis using stable and radioactive isotope labelling. An in vitro liquid culture system, developed for detached oat panicles and optimized to mimic kernel composition during different developmental stages in planta, is presented here. This system was subsequently used in analyses of carbon partitioning between lipids and carbohydrates by the administration of 14C-labelled sucrose to two cultivars having different amounts of kernel oil. The data presented in this study clearly show that a higher amount of oil in the high-oil cultivar compared with the medium-oil cultivar was due to a higher proportion of carbon partitioning into oil during seed filling, predominantly at the earlier stages of kernel development.

Key words: Avena sativa, carbon partitioning, cereal, endosperm, lipid, oat, oil, starch, triacylglycerol

Received 20 August 2008; Revised 3 October 2008 Accepted 6 October 2008


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