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1. By using EDTA in reaction mixtures it was possible to determine the activity of sucrose phosphate synthetase in freshly prepared leaf extracts without the complications caused by sucrose phosphatase. 2. EDTA was found also to increase the activity of sucrose phosphate synthetase by as much as 100%. 3. High sucrose phosphate synthetase activities were found in leaf preparations in which sucrose phosphatase was inhibited by EDTA. By contrast with previous reports, the activities were sufficient to allow sucrose synthesis in leaves during photosynthesis to occur via sucrose phosphate. 4. Sugar-cane plants having different rates of photosynthesis also had different activities of sucrose phosphate synthetase in their leaves. 5. It is suggested that the activity of sucrose phosphate synthetase in leaves may play a role in the control of the rate of photosynthesis.

Laterally connected vascular bundles in the nodes of sugarcane (Saccharum species cv. Pindar) stalks allow a rapid redistribution of water across the stalk should the vascular continuity be partly disrupted. Tritiated water supplied to the roots exchanged rapidly between the xylem and storage tissue so that net movement up the stalk was slow. The half-time for exchange in a labeled stalk was about 4 hours so that the entire water content of a sugarcane stalk can turn over at least once in a single day. No rapid flux of sugar between xylem and phloem or xylem and storage tissue was detected. Functional xylem contained only low sugar concentrations: less than 0.3% w/v in the stalk and less than 0.02% w/v in the leaf. Previous reports of high sugar levels (9% w/v) in sugarcane stalk xylem reflect some degree of xylem blockage followed by a slow equilibration with free space sugars in the storage tissue.

In tissue slices from rapidly expanding internodes of sugar cane the vacuolar invertase level is a function of the balance between synthesis and destruction. The enzyme is destroyed in the tissue at an approximately constant rate with a half time of 2 hours. Invertase synthesis is regulated by both auxin and glucose. From studies with inhibitors of protein and RNA synthesis we conclude that auxin alters the rate of synthesis and glucose increases the rate of destruction of messenger RNA required for the production of invertase.

The rate-limiting reaction for glucose uptake in storage tissue of sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum L., appears to be the movement of glucose across the boundary between the free space and the metabolic compartments. The mechanism for uptake of glucose across this boundary has been studied using 3-O-methyl glucose, an analogue of glucose which is not metabolized by sugar-cane tissue.This analogue is taken up by sugarcane storage tissue at a similar rate to glucose. Its rate of uptake follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics, Km = 1.9 mm, and it is competitively inhibited by glucose, Ki = 2 to 3 mm. Glucose uptake is similarly inhibited by 3-O-methyl glucose. Uptake of 3-O-methyl glucose is energy-dependent and does not appear to be the result of counterflow of glucose.It is concluded that glucose and 3-O-methyl glucose uptake across the boundary between the free space and the metabolic compartment in this tissue is mediated by an energy-dependent carrier system capable of accumulating the sugars against a concentration gradient.

A new method was devised to measure the concentration of sucrose in the free space of sugarcane stalks. The free space includes the aqueous phase of cell walls. The method differs substantially, in principle, from one used previously, but it gave the same result, namely, that sucrose concentrations in the free space can approach the level in the bulk of the tissue.

Trehalase activity was detected in extracts of roots, leaves, and stalk tissue from sugar cane. The enzyme was not bound to cell particulates, and had a pH optimum of 6.2 and a Michaelis constant for trehalose of 1×10(-4) M. The level of enzyme detected in mature stalk tissue was too low to account for glucose transport into tissue slices. The enzyme level was high in immature stalk tissue in which the vacuolar sugar pool turns over rapidly. Trehalose synthesis and breakdown may be part of a system for transport of hexose out from the vacuole.