Metabolism of ent-kaurenol-[17-14C], ent-kaurenal-[17-14C] and ent-kaurenoic acid-[17-14C] by germinating Hordeum distichon grains

Subcellular fractions from germinated barley embryos, chloroplast preparations and whole germinating barley grains are able to carry out the conversions ent-kaurenol → ent-kaurenal → ent-kaurenoic acid → ent-hydroxykaurenoic acid, the initial steps of the biosynthetic pathway to gibberellins. Whole grains, and chloroplasts to a slight extent, incorporate radioactivity from ent-kaurenol-17-¹⁴C] and ent-kaurenoic acid-17-¹⁴C] into materials with similar but distinct properties from the gibberellins GA₁, GA₃, GA₄ and GA₇.