Characterization of Carbohydrate Metabolism during Dark-Induced Senescence

To investigate the changes of carbohydrate metabolism in the senescing leaves of Zea mays during dark-induced senescence, the changes in the contents of reducing sugar, sucrose and starch as well as the activities of sucrose synthase, three isozymes of invertase, and ${\alpha}$-amylase were measured. In the senescing leaves, the content of reducing sugars temporarily increased at 4 d and rapidly decreased thereafter, whereas sucrose contents gradually decreased thereafter, whereas sucrose contents gradually decreased until 3 d of senscence and significantly decreased thereafter. The activities of intracellular invertases such as soluble acid and alkaline formed gradually enhanced until 4 d of leaf senescence and significantly declined thereafter. The extracellular invertase activity showed no significant changes during leaf senescence. The deactivation of sucrose synthase was observed within 3 d of leaf senscence. On the other hand, the starch contents gradually declined during 2 d of leaf senescence, and showed a temporary increase at 3 d, which is similar to the pattern of sucrose synthase activity., These results imply that sucrose in the senescing leaves. The major enzymes which correlated to the breakdown of sucrose during dark-induced senescence were soluble acid and alkaline invertases, not sucrose and ABA accelerated leaf senescence by inducing the accumulation of reducing sugar. These result, therefore, that leaf senescence may be mediated by the temporary quantitative changes of reducing sugar induced by the activation of intracellualr inveertases.