This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Spaeth, S. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Spaeth, S. C. Agricola Articles by Spaeth, S. C.

Environmental and Stress Physiology

Pressure-Driven Extrusion of Intracellular Substances from Bean and Pea Cotyledons during Imbibition ¹

Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 215 Johnson Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164

Intracellular substances leak from imbibing cotyledons of grain legumes during imbibition. This work reports the discovery of a biophysical process by which intracellular substances are driven from cotyledons during imbibition. Light and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) cotyledons and the material released from them into imbibition water. A large fraction of the visible materials released from excised bean and pea cotyledons during the first 30 minutes of imbibition consisted of convoluted or helical streams of material which rapidly emerged from the cotyledons surfaces. Large streams of material from bean cotyledons contained starch grains and protein bodies, and smaller streams from bean and pea cotyledons probably contained protein bodies. The forms of streams were characteristic of a viscous fluid which had been forced by pressure through irregular orifices. The sites of extrusion from bean cotyledons were multicellular blisters which formed on the surfaces of imbibing cotyledons. In 6 hours, pea and bean cotyledons leaked from 1 to 11 micrograms protein per milligram of seed dry weight. The quantities of protein leaked primarily depended on cultivar.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. F.J. Rutzke, A. G. Taylor, and R. L. Obendorf Influence of Aging, Oxygen, and Moisture on Ethanol Production from Cabbage Seeds J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., January 1, 2008; 133(1): 158 - 164. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]