The reaction catalyzed by ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) to form ADP-glucose is a regulatory and rate-limiting step in starch synthesis in plants. In response to decreased sorbitol synthesis, starch synthesis was up-regulated in the transgenic apple plants. In this study, we examined both redox and metabolite regulation of AGPase to understand the mechanism responsible for the up-regulation of starch synthesis. No difference in the monomerization/dimerization of apple leaf AGPase small subunits was observed between the transgenic plants and the untransformed control. NADP-dependent malate dehydrogenase, indicative of chloroplastic redox status, did not show significant change in the transgenic plants either. Determination of key metabolites with nonaqueous fractionation indicated that concentrations of hexose phosphates (mainly glucose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate) were higher in both the cytosol and chloroplasts of the transgenic plants than in the control, whereas 3-phosphoglycerate (PGA) concentration in the chloroplast was not higher in the transgenic plants. We conclude that accumulation of hexose-phosphates results in a decrease in inorganic phosphate (Pi) concentration and an increase in PGA/Pi ratio in the chloroplast, leading to up-regulation of starch synthesis via activating AGPase.