CARBOHYDRATE-METABOLISM DURING SPROUTING

With the data presently available one might suggest, albeit arguably, that improving the rate of starch breakdown and sucrose biosynthesis in sprouting tubers would have little influence on the rate of sprout growth. One way to resolve many of the issues raised in this review is to manipulate, in a targeted or non-targeted fashion, the expression of genes encoding the proteins which catalyze starch breakdown and sucrose turnover. Such techniques could include transposon tagging, the generation of mutants by chemical or physical means and over - or under expressing the genes of interest using Agrobacterium armed with sense or antisense constructs. Answers to such questions may be available within the next three to five years. © 1990 Springer.