THE BIOSYNTHESIS OF SUCROSE

The enzyme, which was named sucrose phosphorylase, has not been found in plant tissues (4), and thus the mechanism of sucrose synthesis remains obscure. Evidence obtained from tracer experiments led Buchanan et al. (5, 6) to assume that in plants sucrose phosphate is formed from UDPG’ and fructose-l-phosphate. This hypothesis stimulated work which led to the discovery of an enzyme which catalyzes sucrose synthesis according to the following reaction: