Appearance of wheat-germ agglutinin during maturation of field-grown wheat.
Field-grown wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has been used as a developmental system to study the appearance of wheat-germ agglutinin during grain maturation. The lectin appears at the mid-grain growth period (30-34 days post-anthesis) and continues to be synthesised throughout the late stages of maturation and desiccation. An acidic endopeptidase activity, inhibited by pepstatin-phenanthroline is present in extracts of embryo and endosperm throughout maturation. After in-vivo labelling of immature embryos with [(35)S]methionine for 3 h and extraction in the presence of proteinase inhibitors, immunoprecipitates with anti-wheat-germ agglutinin were analysed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography, and found to contain three (35)S-labelled polypeptides of Mr 46000, 18000 and 13000. Comparison of two-dimensional tryptic maps of (125)I-labelled peptides indicate the three polypeptides are closely related.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK.
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RC
Miller
D J
DJ
Bowles