Table 3.

Effect of temperature during seed development and maturation on nucleotide content, mitochondrial respiration rate and adenylate energy charge (AEC) of excised wheat embryos after 4 h imbibition (adapted from Grass & Burris 1995)

	Temperature regime*
	20/15 °C	28/21 °C	36/29 °C
Nucleotide content† (nmol/g)
AMP	400	370	448
ADP	571	518	412
ATP	452	393	141
Total	1422	1180	1001
State 3 mitochondrial respiration rate (nmol O2/min)	9·7	6·9	5·3
AEC‡	0·52	0·51	0·35

^*Day/night with 8 h day temperature and 16 h night temperature.

^†AMP, adenosine monophosphate; ADP, adenosine diphosphate; ATP, adenosine triphosphate.

^‡AEC expressed as the ratio (ATP+0·5ADP/ATP+ADP+AMP)=energy status of the seed (Atkinson 1968).