Phloem loading in Ricinus cotyledons: sucrose pathways via the mesophyll and the apoplasm

Ricinus communis cv. Carmencita seedlings with their cotyledons incubated in sucrose solution and their hypocotyls cut to induce exudation of phloem sap, constitute a system of sucrose fluxes into and out of the cotyledons. This system was characterized with respect to quasi-steady-state conditions of sucrose uptake and export and then used to investigate the pathways of sucrose during phloem loading. The redistribution of ¹⁴C-labelled internal sucrose between the three compartments, cotyledons (mesophyll), exudate (sieve tubes) and incubation medium (cell-wall space), was measured in the presence or absence of external nonlabelled sucrose. It was found that mesophyll-derived labelled and external sucrose compete at uptake sites in the apoplasm. On the basis of the specific radioactivity of sucrose which reflects the proportionate intermixture of mesophyll-derived and external sucrose in the three compartments, it was determined that about 50% of the sucrose exported is loaded directly from the apoplasm, while the other half takes the route via the mesophyll. It was confirmed that mesophyll-derived sucrose is released into the apoplasm, so that the existence of an indirect apoplasmic loading pathway is established. Calculations depending on the concentration gradients of labelled and non-labelled sucrose in the cell-wall space are presented to quantify tentatively the proportions of direct and indirect apoplasmic as well as symplasmic loading.This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 137). We thank Walter Köckenberger and Ernst Steudle (Bayreuth, FRG) for discussions on the water flow in the exuding Ricinus seedling, and Dietrich Samoray (Bayreuth, FRG) for the conceptual discussions throughout this work.