SINK METABOLISM - CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

The basic objective of this study was to build a model that describes the physiology of sinks and the process of unloading assimilates from the phloem. The metabolic steps necessary to describe a typical sink were obtained from the literature. Several methods to describe mathematically these metabolic steps are available but they were either too cumbersome and slow or too simple. This necessitated the development of a new method to describe multiple enzyme systems. This paper describes the development of that method. The method involves a rather simple enzyme analysis of coupled biochemical processes common to most types of sinks. A conceptual framework is presented to provide a basis for further quantification of the metabolism of various types of sinks through their development sequence. © 1979, Annals of Botany Company.