Cereal Grain Structure and Development: Some Implications for Quality

The grains of cultivated grasses that are conventionally described as cereals share many structural and developmental features. At the same time they are distinguished, one from another, by many individual characteristics, which fit them for different types of processing. In this review an attempt is made to describe common characteristics and to identify significant variables, both among and within species, that influence the grains» fitness for processing. A fruit is defined by every component part, but research has been concentrated disproportionately on those components perceived as being of greatest importance. For the continuation of the species the only essential component is the embryo, but for exploitation by humans the largest component, the endosperm, is the most important. It is inevitable that this review reflects the uneven emphasis of the literature on which it is based. A further justification for the bias is the potential that endosperm offers, by virtue of its simplicity, as a model whereby fundamental mechanisms of cell behaviour and control might be elucidated. This has already been recognised by a few but benefit may result from its wider appreciation.