Cereal Chem 49:212 - 222.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
The Ultrastructure of the Mature Wheat Endosperm.

D. H. Simmonds. Copyright 1972 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The storage protein of the wheat endosperm may be separated from the starch component under nonaqueous conditions involving air classification followed by flotation in mixtures of chloroform and benzene of density 1.32 to 1.34. The small pieces of protein thus obtained, together with coarsely milled fragments of the original endosperm, were examined by electron microscopy. Numerous osmiophilic inclusions were observed in each preparation. Those inclusions showing residual structure were identified as remnants of the amyloplast membranes surrounding each starch granule and of the endoplasmic reticulum of the developing endosperm cell. Ribosomes could be seen attached to the latter. Sections of hard and soft wheat differed in appearance under the electron microscope, and this appeared to be related to differences in the extent of shrinkage of the protein matrix during fixation, and in the strength of adhesion between starch and protein in the two wheat types.