In order to understand and manipulate carbon flux to sucrose one needs to consider not only
its biosynthetic pathways, but also the competing sinks for carbon in various parts of the
plant and at different stages of development. The cell wall and sucrose is known to be the
major sinks for carbon in young and mature tissues of sugarcane. UDP-Glucose is a central
metabolite in the synthesis of both sucrose and most of the cell wall polysaccharides
(including cellulose, hemicellulose and pectic polymers) and manipulation of the flux into
either of the cell wall components could therefore cause an increase of flux toward one or
more of the competing sinks. In the present study UDP-Glucose dehydrogenase (UGD)
activity was chosen for down regulation as it catalyzes the rate limiting step in the
biosynthesis of the precursors of both hemicellulose and pectin, a major competing sink for
assimilated carbon.