Frontiers in Plant Science (May 2016)
Kinetic modeling of sunflower grain filling and fatty acid biosynthesis
Abstract
Grain growth and oil biosynthesis are complex processes that involve various enzymes placed in different sub-cellular compartments of the grain. In order to understand the mechanisms controlling grain weight and composition we need mathematical models capable of simulating the dynamic behavior of the main components of the grain during the grain filling stage. In this paper, we present a non-structured mechanistic kinetic model developed for sunflower grains. The model was first calibrated for sunflower hybrid ACA855. The calibrated model was able to predict the theoretical amount of carbohydrate equivalents allocated to the grain, grain growth and the dynamics of the oil and non-oil fraction, while considering maintenance requirements and leaf senescence. Incorporating into the model the serial-parallel nature of fatty acid biosynthesis permitted a good representation of the kinetics of palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids production. A sensitivity analysis showed that the relative influence of input parameters changed along grain development. Grain growth was mostly affected by the specific growth parameter (μ´) while fatty acid composition strongly depended on their own maximum specific rate parameters. The model was successfully applied to two additional hybrids (MG2 and DK3820). The proposed model can be the first building block towards the development of a more sophisticated model, capable of predicting the effects of environmental conditions on grain weight and composition, in a comprehensive and quantitative way.
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