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Uptake and Metabolic Fate of Glucose, Arabinose, and Xylose by Zea mays Coleoptiles in Relation to Cell Wall Synthesis ¹

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907

According to the acid-growth hypothesis, auxin-induced secretion of hydrogen ions activate "wall loosening" enzymes that change the rheological properties of the cell wall. The wall loosening process may yield monosaccharides by the enzymic cleavage of load-bearing polysaccharides. Our study was initiated to determine the metabolic fate of such sugars when released from the major hemicellulosic polysaccharides of the cell walls of Zea mays coleoptiles.

Excised coleoptile sections accumulated radioactive glucose, arabinose, and xylose supplied in an incubation medium, and the radioactivity from these sugars was incorporated into polysaccharides. At least 50% of the radioactivity from glucose accumulated in the soluble neutral sugar fraction regardless of external concentrations. The distribution of radioactivity from xylose into all subcellular fractions was similar to that from glucose, indicating that xylose was converted to glucose before being used by the coleoptile. IAA increased the incorporation of glucose into cell wall polysaccharide and neutral sugar pools when the exogenous concentration was higher than 1 millimolar.

Over 80% of the radioactivity from arabinose accumulated by the coleoptile sections was incorporated into soluble and noncellulosic polymers; IAA induced an increase in the incorporation of arabinose into noncellulosic polymers by 22%. Accumulation of radioactivity from arabinose into polysaccharide was enhanced by IAA at concentrations of exogenous arabinose up to 33 millimolar.

IAA promoted the incorporation of both arabinose and glucose into cell wall polysaccharides even when elongation was inhibited by CaCl₂, indicating that the influence of IAA was not a consequence of the growth response.