Effect of anoxia on the induction of ?-amylase in cereal seeds

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00195699
• Publication Date: 2004-09-25T11:28:47Z
• Authors: P. Perata; N. Geshi; J. Yamaguchi; T. Akazawa
• Keywords: Secale; Avena; Gibberellic acid; Caryopsis; Hordeum

The effect of anoxia on the induction of α-amylase in seeds of rice (Oryza sativa L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), oat (Avena sativa L.) and rye (Secale cereale L.) was studied. The results showed that only rice is able to synthesize α-amylase under anoxia, while other cereal seeds fail to produce the enzyme and do not germinate. The inhibitory effect of anoxia on α-amylase induction is concluded to be due to the inability of cereal seeds to respond to gibberellic acid under conditions of total oxygen deprivation. Rice appears to be an exception to this rule among the cereal seeds tested. We found that α-amylase mRNA fails to accumulate in embryoless barley half-seeds treated with gibberellic acid, indicating that the action of anoxia may be at the transcriptional level.