The pressure-flow hypothesis provides a compelling model to explain sink strength in plants. Evidence such as accelerated import of photoassimilate into roots with artificially lowered P lends empirical support to the model.
Knowledge of cellular and molecular events in phloem unloading and photoassimilate use begins to reveal the array of control steps which underlie photoassimilate unloading and relative sink strength. Photoassimilate import into sinks by apoplasmic pathways or by diffusion through symplasmic pathways (Figure 5.19) is controlled by P in se–cc complexes. In contrast, when phloem unloading is by bulk flow through a symplasmic route (e.g. legume seed coats), P in cells responsible for photoassimilate efflux to the apoplasm controls unloading. Unloading into storage tissues is controlled by P in sink (storage) cells.
These processes at the cell and tissue level must now be related to a whole-plant perspective of sink control of photoassimilate partitioning, taking into account influences of plant development and environmental factors. How plants use photoassimilates (e.g. switch from growth to storage) is accompanied by alterations in the cellular pathway of import. Phytohormones also play a role in photoassimilate partitioning through their influence on development and intercellular signalling.
Plant development generates new sinks, for example in meristems where cells undergo division or growth zones where enlarging cells import photoassimilates.
(a) Meristematic sinks
Potential sink size is set largely during the meristematic phase of development through determination of total cell number per organ. Photoassimilate supply has been implicated as a limiting factor in initiation of leaf primordia at the apical dome and subsequent early development by cell division. Substrate supply for developing seeds (endosperm, embryo) and root and floral apices might also be restricted.
Agricultural yields might therefore increase if plants could be modified to enhance the supply of photoassimilates to meristems. Which factors regulate photoassimilate supply to meristematic sinks? Rate equations describing mass flow of phloem sap (Section 5.2.5) predict that photoassimilate supply reaching a sink will be determined by source output (setting photoassimilate concentration in sap and P in sieve elements at the source) and modulated by Lp of the transport pathway. Increased photoassimilate output from source leaves increases growth activity of primary meristems. Even during reduced source output, photoassimilate import and meristematic sink strength can be maintained by remobilisation of storage reserves. Manipulating competition for photo-assimilates by more established sinks also suggests that source output influences sink behaviour.
Cultivated plants demonstrate these principles. For example, flushing CO2 into glasshouses increases flower set and hence yield of floral and fruit crops. Similarly, applying growth regulators to induce abscission of some floral apices lessens the number of sinks competing for photoassimilates at fruit set and leads to larger and more uniform fruit at harvest. Alternatively, breeding programs have reduced sink strength of non-harvestable portions of crops and hence the severity of competition. For instance, breeding dwarf varieties of cereals has reduced photoassimilate demand by stems with a consequent increase in floret numbers set and grain size.
These observations imply that increases in net leaf photosynthesis and phloem loading should set higher yield potentials. Yet meristems import only a small proportion of total plant photoassimilate. It may be that phloem conductance limits photoassimilate delivery to meristems; increases in source output would amplify the driving force for transport and hence bulk flow through a low-conductance pathway.
Given that mature phloem pathways have spare transport capacity (Section 5.2.5), any transport limitation imposed by low path conductance might be expected within immature sinks. Photoassimilate import into meristematic sinks involves transport through partially differentiated provascular strands that might extend up to 400µm. Movement through this partially differentiated path is symplasmic (Section 5.2.2(b)). Hence, plasmodesmal numbers and transport properties of plasmodesmata could play a critical role in photoassimilate supplies to sinks and determination of sink size (Equation 5.7).
(b) Expansion and storage sinks
As cells expand and approach cell maturity, photoassimilates are increasingly diverted into storage products. Towards maturity, fully differentiated phloem pathways with spare transport capacity link expansion/storage sinks with photosynthetic leaves. Photoassimilate import by these sinks depends on duration of the storage phase. This can be short term for sinks located along the axial transport pathway and long term for sinks sited at the ends of transport pathways (e.g. tubers, fruits and seeds).
Storage along the axial pathway occurs mainly when photoassimilate production exceeds photoassimilate demands by terminal sinks. However, storage is not necessarily a passive response to excess photoassimilate supply. Stems of sugar cane store large quantities of photoassimilates (50% of dry weight is sucrose) even during rapid growth of terminal sinks. Photoassimilates might be stored as simple sugars (e.g. sugar cane stems) or as polymers (fructans in stems of temperate grasses; starch in stems and roots of subtropical cereals, herbaceous annuals and woody perennials). Photoassimilates stored along axial pathways buffer against diurnal and more long term fluctuations in photoassimilate supply to terminal sinks. In woody deciduous species, axially stored photoassimilates also provide a long-term seasonal storage pool that is drawn on to support bud growth following budburst. Remobilised photoassimilates can contribute substantially to biomass gain of terminal sinks. For instance, in some mature trees, over half the photoassimilates for new growth come from remobilised reserves; similar proportions of stem-stored fructans contribute to grain growth in cereals when photoassimilate production is reduced (e.g. by drought). Physiological switching between net storage and remobilisation is an intriguing regulatory question.
Growth and development of meristems is determined by phloem unloading events and metabolic interconversion of photoassimilates within recipient sink cells. These transport and transfer processes vary between sinks and can alter during sink development. Techniques now exist to alter expression of membrane porter proteins and possibly enhance photoassimilate import by sinks such as seeds which have an apoplasmic step in the phloem unloading pathway. Prospects of altering plasmodesmal conductivity will improve once plasmodesmal proteins are identified and their encoding genes known.