Abstract
Using an indirect method, it proved possible to follow certain aspects of phosphorylase-catalyzed new starch (amylose) synthesis during its early course in ground parenchyma cells of Zebrina internodes. The new starch stained purple to bluish purple (not red) with I2-KI from time of earliest detection, indicating long rather than short polymers. With increasingly longer incubation periods, there was an intensifying of the same colors but no appreciable change in hue. These results were interpreted as indicating "single chain" synthesis; i.e., new molecules, already started, are completed to full length before the synthesis of additional new ones is begun.