ABSTRACT
54Rice and wheat seedlings tolerate days and hours of anoxia, respectively. Rice alone has a developmental program specific to anoxia, stimulating coleoptile elongation. Pure alcoholic fermentation with strong Pasteur effect in rice and mixed lactic-alcoholic fermentation with no Pasteur effect in wheat granted to the former species more energy and better regulation of intracellular pH during anoxia. Metabolic proton consumption linked to the accumulation of GABA and putrescine was also central to the latter issue. Alanine synthesis from ammonia transduced energy from sugar fermentation into turgor pressure for coleoptile elongation during anoxia.
