Carbohydrate Metabolism In Plants

Overview of carbohydrate metabolism; Carbohydrates - structure, location, function; Sucrose metabolism; Respiratory metabolism; Polysaccharide synthesis; Polysaccharide degradation; Secondary products; Regulation of carbohydrate metabolism; Techniques of carbohydrate analysis.

Carbohydrate reserves constitute the major part of edible portion of the plants. Latest researches in major crops like wheat, rice, maize, barley, potato, sugarcane, sugarbeet, Jerusalem artichoke, chicory and carbohydrates in trees have been included in this book. The book will be of great value to the basic plant biochemists, molecular biologists, biotechnologists, and genetic crop engineers and to the agricultural scientists working in different disciplines related to crop productivity. This compilation may act as a medium to initiate discussions among these scientists leading to new researches in the area of crop productivity and reserve carbohydrate metabolism.

Methods for Analysis of Carbohydrate Metabolism in Photosynthetic Organisms: Plants, Green Algae and Cyanobacteria examines both general and detailed aspects of carbohydrate metabolism in photosynthetic organisms, along with the four main oligosaccharides and each enzymatic reaction that gives birth to them. Chapters include information on how biological active protein is extracted for different cells, determination of enzymatic activity, separation of proteins by different available methods, and descriptions of analytical methods for the determination of various types of carbohydrates in photosynthetic organisms. The book contains useful protocols for researchers working on the determination of carbohydrate metabolism. The book provides foundational content as well as step-by-step guidance on how to design and conduct an experiment, including what other methodologies could be used if advanced instruments are not readily available. Includes a variety of analytical methods and how to apply the methods using examples from specific case studies Discusses technical information on how to characterize plant carbohydrates and sugar nucleosides Contains easy-to-follow protocols with detailed explanations for self-guidance Provides foundational content as well as step-by-step guidance on how to design and conduct an experiment

Comprises an integrated series of chapters written by internationally recognized researchers. Each chapter of this text reviews the latest developments and provides a collection of assessments of current understanding of the subject.

Occurrence and distribution of storage carbohydrates in vascular plants; Sucrose metabolism; Pathways and mechanisms associated with carbohydrate translocation in plants; Physiology and metabolism of sucrosyl-fructans; Biosynthesis of oligosaccharides in vascular plants; Physiology and metabolism of cyclitols; Physiology and metabolism of alditols; Biochemistry and physiology of synthesis of starch in leaves: autotrophic and heterotrophic chloroplasts; Degradation of starch in chloroplasts: a buffer to sucrose metabolism; Metabolism of reserve starch; Synthesis and degradation of extracellular storage polysaccharides.

It is perhaps obvious to any student of Biology that the discovery of chemical processes in whole organisms has usually preceded the elucidation of the compo nent steps. However, it is perhaps less obvious that the unravelling of the se quences in which those chemical steps occur in living matter, of the precise mechanisms involved, and of the manner in which they are regulated, would have been achieved neither by the study of intact plants and animals nor even of extracts derived from them. Our ability to understand the nature and regulation of metabolism rests on two main premises: the postulate that life processes can indeed be validly investigated with individual cells and cell-free extracts, and the thesis that there is an essential "unity in biochemistry" (as Kluyver put it, 60 years ago) that enables events in one organism to be legitimately studied in another. Of particular utility in this latter respect has been the use of cultures of single-celled organisms, growing in defined media-especially prokaryotes, such as Escherichia coli, and eukaryotes, such as Neurospora and Sac charomyces sp. , to which both biochemical and genetical techniques could be applied. It was, of course, Pasteur's observations of bacterial fermentations that first overthrew the belief that oxygen was essential for all energy-yielding pro cesses: his recognition that "La fermentation . . . . . c' est La vie sans air" laid the foundations of our knowledge of glycolysis.

Photosynthesis: Physiology and Metabolism is the we have concentrated on the acquisition and ninth volume in theseries Advances in Photosynthesis metabolism of carbon. However, a full understanding (Series Editor, Govindjee). Several volumes in this of reactions involved in the conversion of to series have dealt with molecular and biophysical sugars requires an integrated view of metabolism. aspects of photosynthesis in the bacteria, algae and We have, therefore, commissioned international cyanobacteria, focussing largely on what have been authorities to write chapters on, for example, traditionally, though inaccurately, termed the ‘light interactionsbetween carbon and nitrogen metabolism, reactions’(Volume 1, The Molecular Biology of on respiration in photosynthetic tissues and on the Cyanobacteria;Volume2,AnoxygenicPhotosynthetic control of gene expression by metabolism. Photo- Bacteria, Volume 3, Biophysical Techniques in synthetic carbon assimilation is also one of the most Photosynthesis and Volume 7, The Molecular Biology rapid metabolic processes that occurs in plant cells, of the Chloroplasts and Mitochondria in Chlamy- and therefore has to be considered in relation to domonas). Volume 4 dealt with Oxygenic Photo- transport, whether it be the initial uptake of carbon, synthesis: The Light Reactions, and volume 5 with intracellular transport between organelles, inter- Photosynthesis and the Environment, whereas the cellular transport, as occurs in plants, or transport structure and function of lipids in photosynthesis of photosynthates through and out of the leaf. All was covered in Volume 6 of this series: Lipids in these aspects of transport are also covered in the Photosynthesis: Structure, Function and Genetics, book.