ABSTRACT
The production of alpha-amylase and other hydrolytic enzymes, during the early stages of germination in cereal grains is essential for the provision of substrate and building blocks for the developing plantlet and the successful establishment of a cereal crop. Even relatively low levels of these enzymes are incompatible with the production of most high quality, human food products. Alpha-amylase production by germ tissue explants was compared with that of intact grains incubated under identical conditions. Where only a small proportion of the grains had germinated, the time differential approached the magnitude required for variation in rate of alpha-amylase synthesis production to be of practical significance in pre-harvest sprouting tolerance. During the early stages of germination of wheat grains production of alpha-amylase by the germ tissue, presumably the scutellum, appeared to account for all the enzyme produced in the grain and it was only at a later stage of germination that the aleurone tissue also began to synthesize enzyme.
