You’ve gotta starch somewhere: Evidence for an alternative starch granule initiation pathway
Plant Science Research WeeklyStarch is the major storage carbohydrate in plants, and in Arabidopsis leaves it forms granules in the chloroplasts to supply energy during the night when photosynthesis is inactive. These semicrystalline granules are made of glucose chains, which can be mostly unbranched (amylose) or highly branched…
OsLESV cooperates with FLO6 to modulate starch biosynthesis and endosperm development
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellOsLESV cooperates with FLO6 to modulate starch biosynthesis and endosperm development
Yan, Zhang, Wang et al. identify OsLESV–FLO6 as a non-enzymatic molecular module responsible for starch biosynthesis and endosperm development.
https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koae006
By Haigang Yan, Wenwei…
Staining starch granules in living plants
Plant Science Research WeeklyStarch granules are synthesized in the leaves of chloroplast during the day and degraded in the subsequent night. To visualise starch granules the tissue usually has to be fixed, which prevents live imaging. Here Ichikawa et al. set out to find a highly specific dye to image starch granules in living…
Soluble and insoluble α-glucan synthesis in yeast by enzyme suites derived from maize endosperm
Plant Science Research WeeklyStarch is a polymer of α-glucose which is assembled into insoluble, semi-crystalline granules in plants. It is not known why we see only insoluble starch granules in plants and no soluble α-glucan polymers. To investigate this, Boehlein et al. took a synthetic biology approach. Eleven starch metabolism…