Sugars in crop plants

We review current knowledge of the most abundant sugars, sucrose, maltose, glucose and fructose, in the world's major crop plants. The sucrose-accumulating crops, sugar beet and sugar cane, are included, but the main focus of the review is potato and the major cereal crops. The production of su...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of applied biology 2011, Vol.158 (1), p.1-25
Main Authors: Halford, N.G, Curtis, T.Y, Muttucumaru, N, Postles, J, Mottram, D.S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acrylamide
Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding
Biological and medical sciences
carbohydrates
carbon metabolism
cell walls
crop science
Environment. Living conditions
Food industries
food quality
Food safety
fructan
fructose
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
furans
General aspects
glucose
Hygiene and safety
Maillard reaction
maize
maltose
Medical research
Medical sciences
potato
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
rice
rye
signalling
starch
Sucrose
sugar beet
sugar cane
trehalose
wheat
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Summary:We review current knowledge of the most abundant sugars, sucrose, maltose, glucose and fructose, in the world's major crop plants. The sucrose-accumulating crops, sugar beet and sugar cane, are included, but the main focus of the review is potato and the major cereal crops. The production of sucrose in photosynthesis and the inter-relationships of sucrose, glucose, fructose and other metabolites in primary carbon metabolism are described, as well as the synthesis of starch, fructan and cell wall polysaccharides and the breakdown of starch to produce maltose. The importance of sugars as hormone-like signalling molecules is discussed, including the role of another sugar, trehalose, and the trehalose biosynthetic pathway. The Maillard reaction, which occurs between reducing sugars and amino acids during thermal processing, is described because of its importance for colour and flavour in cooked foods. This reaction also leads to the formation of potentially harmful compounds, such as acrylamide, and is attracting increasing attention as food producers and regulators seek to reduce the levels of acrylamide in cooked food. Genetic and environmental factors affecting sugar concentrations are described.
ISSN:0003-4746
1744-7348
DOI:10.1111/j.1744-7348.2010.00443.x