The accumulation of the steroidal saponins avenacoside A and B in oat was investigated in green and etiolated seedlings and was found to be strictly bound to the growth of the seedlings. No significant differences were detected between green and etiolated seedlings, showing that there is no relation between saponin accumulation and plastid development. As the role of the oat saponins has to be seen as a protective device against fungi and bacteria, the transformation of the inactive avenacosides to their corresponding antibiotic 26-desgluco-avenacosides was tested in dependence of pH and temperature. During disruption of leaves, transformation occurs almost completely over a wide pH-range (pH 4 -pH 10); the degree of transformation exhibits no distinct temperature optimum but a drastic decrease at 70 °C.

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The greening and reetiolation process of etiolated leaves of oat, wheat and rye, possessing different types of prolamellar bodies (PLBs), was observed by electron microscopy. Oat is known to possess unusual crystalline PLBs (so-called 'narrow type'). Rye and what, which normally show PLBs with more loosely packed tubules ('wide type') during etiolation, exhibited PLBs of the narrow type after illumination and subsequent reincubation in the dark (=reetiolation). Thus the reetiolated PLBs of wheat and rye did not differ from etiolated or reetiolated oat PLBs. In parallel with the microscopic analysis, intact leaves of all developmental stages were analysed for their galactolipid content and composition of molecular species using a newly developed high-performance liquid chromatography procedure. When oat, wheat and rye were compared, differences in the molecular species and the molar ratio of the two galactolipids monogalactosyldiacylglyceride (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglyceride (DGDG) were found. However, no parameter showed a correlation with PLB construction, disintegration or reconstruction. The results presented in this paper are not consistent with the hypothesis that the molar ratio of MGDG/DGDG is responsible for the tubular structure of prolamellar bodies in etioplasts.

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