O-4
Enzyme development during germination of barley
Presenter: Robert J. Kuntz, University of California, Davis, CA
Co-Author: C.W. Bamforth, University of California, Davis, CA

In the most active of eras for study of barley germination (the 1960's thru 1970's) a favored tool was barley annuli, viz. slices taken vertically through the endosperm of de-husked kernels such that they comprised a central core of starchy endosperm surrounded by the aleurone. As such, these tissues were devoid of embryo and so presented an opportunity to study enzyme synthesis by the aleurone in response to the addition of different quantities and types of plant hormones. In the ensuing period, there have been great advances in the understanding of the structure of the endosperm cells, notably their walls, as well as an increased appreciation that the enzymology of barley modification is more complex than beta-glucanase, proteinases and amylases alone. Against this background we have been elucidating the hormonal response and sequence of development of the various enzymes that are now understood to function in the modification of the cell wall components of the grain, including a range of esterases.

Robert Kuntz, an M.S. candidate at UC Davis, majored in both biology and anthropology/zoology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, graduating in 1999. He was born in Detroit, MI, in 1977. Robert interned with the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company, Portland, OR, in 2004.