Cereal Chem 46:647 - 655.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Development and Distribution of Wheat Lipase Activity During the Course of Germination.

R. Drapron, N. X. Anh, B. Launay, and A. Guilbot. Copyright 1969 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The development and distribution of lipolytic activity have been studied as a function of plumule growth stage in the course of wheat germination at 15 and 30 C. in darkness and at 30 C. in light, with olive oil as substrate. Lipolytic activity of wheat grain first undergoes a slight decrease, then increases to a level at a determined physiological stage corresponding to a plumule length of about 4 cm., regardless of temperature or light conditions during germination. With germination at 30 C. in darkness, a second increase in activity follows, which reaches a new level at a plumule length of 8 cm. Lipolytic activity is chiefly localized in the coleoptile; rootlets are the next most active fraction, and activity is very low in the residual grain. The lipolytic activity of the different fractions of germinated grain (plumule, rootlets, residual parts of kernel) is all the more important as germination temperature is increased. It is lower in light, under conditions of active photosynthesis, than in darkness, which could indicate that the radiant energy factor plays a part.