ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess


Abstract Number: 5999
Session = 11.19.1


MODIFICATION OF STORAGE STARCH CONTENT AND COMPOSITION IN PLANTS


Richard G.F. Visser, Graduate School EPS, Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Wageningen University, PO Box 386, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands


Starch is the major form in which carbohydrates are stored and is present in almost all plant organs at one or another time during development. Storage starch is formed in amyloplasts as dense granules ranging in size from 1 uM to over 100 uM. They are composed of an essential linear glucose polymer and a branched glucose polymer termed amylose and amylopectin respectively. Knowledge about starch biosynthesis is required to be able to modify starches for industrial or food uses. By altering the starch structure, granular starches might be obtained with novel physical properties and a potentially unlimited range of new industrial applications. By changing the starch synthetic capacity of plants other storage products such as lipids, specific proteins or other sugars might be produced. Genetic modification could bring about these changes if genes and transformation techniques are available. On the other hand research on the induction of starch mutants by different, traditional or advanced, methods remains an important other option. In spite of the fact that novel starches can and have been made, existing (and new to develop) chemical- and enzymatic modification procedures will remain necessary. In this lecture results on the generation of novel starches (by both using genetic modification and classical mutation techniques) will be discussed.


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