Endosperm Morphology and Protein Body Formation in Developing Wheat Grain

The development of wheat grain from intact plants and from detached ears growing in culture has been studied by light and electron microscopy. Provided the sucrose concentration was at a level sufficient to maintain a normal rate of starch synthesis, the endosperm morphology of grain from cultured ears was essentially identical to that of endosperm from intact plants. If, however, sucrose concentration in the culture medium was very low (0.25%), some morphological abnormalities occurred in the endosperm near the crease and adjacent to the seed coat. The synthesis of storage protein in the endosperm is believed to occur largely on polyribosomes attached to endoplasmic reticulum even at the earliest stages of development. Protein bodies are always surrounded by a single membrane, the origin of which may vary. Some protein bodies arise by distention of the endoplasmic reticulum and clearly the membrane here represents the sac into which the protein is discharged after synthesis. In other cases the bounding membrane may be that of a true vacuole or it may be dictyosomal in origin. The methods by which it is suggested that protein bodies are formed in wheat endosperm have parallels in other seeds, although there are some significant differences.