What is the function of the oil in the endosperm?
The fact that most of the lipids are localized in the endosperm in oat raises interesting questions about the fate of these lipids during grain germination. Many seeds from dicotyledonous plants accumulate large amount of lipids in the endosperm. These lipids are broken down through ß-oxidation for energy production in the glyoxosomes, a special organelle that appears in the endosperm during germination. When the reserves in the endosperm are exhausted, the tissue goes through programmed cell death (Schmid et al., 1999). The endosperm of monocotyledons, on the other hand, undergoes programmed cell death already when the grain matures (Young and Gallie, 2000) and thus has no capacity for ß-oxidation during germination. The reserves in these endosperms are mobilized through amylases and proteases, mainly secreted from the aleurone layer, and the produced sugars and amino acids are taken up by the growing embryo. However, there are, to the best of our knowledge, no reports that lipases ar
