Effect of temperature on the growth of wheat. III. Chemical constituents of Marquillo, Kenya Farmer, and two dwarf progeny grown at three temperatures
Marquillo × Kenya Farmer wheat dwarfs 1 and 2 were grown at 16 °C (inhibited "grass-clump" habit), at 21 °C and at 26° (normal habit). The parent varieties were grown under the same conditions for comparison.Analysis of the dwarf strains grown at 16 °C revealed that there was no deficiency of soluble carbohydrate, amino acids, organic acids or chlorophyll when compared to the parent varieties or to the dwarf strains grown at 26 °C. Rather there was marked accumulation of most of these substances in the non-growing plants at 16 °C. The results are consistent with the view that the suspension of growth in the dwarf plants is not due to the lack of ability to synthesize organic metabolites but rather that an inhibitor is accumulated during the low temperature treatment that blocks growth by some other mechanism.