Cereal Chem 57:320 - 325.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Triglyceride Deposits in the Starchy Endosperm of Wheat.

K. D. Hargin, W. R. Morrison, and R. G. Fulcher. Copyright 1980 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Triglycerides are stored in spherosomes (oil droplets bounded by a monolayer membrane) in the aleurone and scutellar cells of mature wheat, and were found in the aleurone-free pearled endosperm of Atou, Flinor (English), Waldron (hard red spring) and Edmore (amber durum) wheats. Analysis of Atou endosperm subfractions obtained by microdrilling showed triglycerides throughout the starchy endosperm with the normal endosperm glycolipids and phospholipids. Highest concentrations of triglycerides and glycolipids were found in subaleurone-enriched fractions. In sections of whole grains stained for microscopy with Nile Blue A, spherosomes appeared as bright fluorescent spots largely filling aleurone and scutellar cells in all four wheats. Small numbers of similar fluorescent spots were observed throughout the starchy endosperm, with greater numbers in the subaleurone region. All fluorescent spots were extractable with hexane. Milled aleurone-free endosperm from Atou exhibited similar spots that were hexane-extractable, the extracted lipids being triglycerides and other nonpolar lipids. Triglycerides therefore occur throughout the starchy endosperm of mature wheat as discrete oil droplets that may be normal spherosomes.