Nutrients and Seeds

By: Meredith Jacobson, Lindsay Stadtherr, and Marco Garbero

Carbohydrates are the most abundant nutrient in seeds. We can consider carbohydrates broadly as sugars (Lab Book, pg. 108). The main functions of carbohydrates include storage (for the development of embryos), energy, and structure. There are three main types of carbohydrates. These are monosaccharides (such as glucose and fructose), which mainly provide energy for the cell, disaccharides (such as sucrose and lactose), which also provide energy and storage, and, finally, polysaccharides (such as cellulose and chitin), which are mainly used for storage and structure. Monosaccharides are the monomers of disaccharides. Disaccharides are thus made up of two monosaccharides. Disaccharides are readily soluble in water (like monosaccharides) and are built by dehydration synthesis (Lab Book, pg. 108). Polysaccharides and disaccharides are broken down by hydrolysis reactions.
Seeds are made up of 4 main layers. These are: the seed coat, the Aleurone layer, the endosperm, and the embryo. In order for the seed to develop each of these layers are to do work. Hormones from the embryo send signals to the Aleurone layer. Then, cells from the Aleurone release enzymes into the endosperm. Finally, the enzymes perform hydrolysis reactions that makes small molecules available, and the cell develops.
Another nutrient available in some seeds are lipids. During lab, it was possible to detect lipids by placing droplets of Sudan Red on a split seed and see if it is readily absorbed. To detect the starches, we used IKI Solution.
Although different seeds express different traits, all of the seeds in our lab share common features that help us generalize about the structure of seeds and the function of their biomolecues (Lab Book, pg. 111).

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Science & Technology

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• Meredith3

[SamuelHammer]

Nice photos from lab. Thanks for playing the soundtrack for me yesterday.