Phosphorus Compounds of Cotton Embryos and Their Changes during Germination.

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Abstract
Successive changes in the amounts and concentrations of the P containing compounds of 2 early- and 1 late-maturing varieties of cotton during a 6-day germination period were followed analytically. The dominant process of P metabolism in the germinating seed was the dephosphorylation of phytin with the simultaneous accumulation of relatively large amounts of inorganic-P. However, germination was marked also by the synthesis and accumulation of additional amounts (beyond those of the embryos) of RNA-, DNA-, protein-, ester- and lipid-P compounds. Light, compared to darkness, increased the rate of phytin hydrolysis and the synthesis of lipid- and ester-P compounds during germination and early seedling growth but had no appreciable effect on the other P compounds. In the partition of P, the hypocotyls plus roots of 6-day-old seedlings differed mainly from the corresponding cotyledons in that the former contained little or no phytin-and only one sixth as much RNA-P. Varietal difference was limited to phytin-P which was present in the embryos and seedlings of the late variety in substantially greater amounts and concentrations than in the 2 early-maturing cottons.