Etiolated pea (Pisum sativum cv. Midfreezer) seedlings respond to illumination with white light by changes in the activity of phenylpropanoid and flavonoid synthesizing enzymes. Unlike in cell cultures, changes in enzyme activity in pea seedlings are not concerted. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (EC 4.3.1.5) activity peaked approximately 18 hours after onset of illumination. The phenylacetate path did not interfere with the measurement of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity. Activity of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase (EC 1.14.13.11) showed an early peak after 8 hours illumination, declined thereafter sharply, then gradually increased during the remainder of the experiment. Activities of chalcone synthase and UDP glucose:flavonol 3-O-glucosyltransferase (EC 2.4.1.91) increased steadily and reached a plateau after approximately 70 hours illumination time. Activity of 4-hydroxycinnamate:coenzyme A ligase (EC 6.2.1.12) remained relatively unchanged, whereas that of chalcone isomerase (EC 5.5.1.6) declined steadily during the course of the experiment. The relative in vitro enzyme activities suggest that the rate-limiting step for the phenylpropanoid path is the cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase, that of the flavonoid pathway is the chalcone synthase. Integration of enzyme activity curves, however, show that only the curve deriving from phenylanine ammonia-lyase activity matches closely the production of the flavonol glycosides.Detailed investigations on the effect of light on dark-grown parsley cell suspension cultures resulted in recognition of coordinated induction in phenylpropanoid-and flavonoid-metabolizing enzyme activities (6). This coordinated induction of enzyme activity is due to de novo synthesis of the subunits and assembly of the enzymes (20) and not to activation of preformed inactive components.There are indications that in intact plants the change in enzyme activities upon illumination are not so straight forward (3, 15). Etiolated pea seedlings respond to exposure of light with complex pattern of transitory changes in the concentration of their flavonoid components (22). These flavonoids are the 3-triglucosides and 3-p-coumaryl triglucosides of kaempferol and quercetin, and the 3-sophoroside 5-glucosides and 3-sambubioside 5-glucosides of cyanidin and delphinidin (4, 25). Correlation between changes in PAL' activity and flavonoid glycoside production suggested the involvement of two different systems in flavonoid synthesis: a lowmagnitude, phytochrome-mediated response, and a long-term response of greater magnitude dependent on continuous illumination (21).In this paper we report the changes in flavonoid glycoside production and in the activity of phenylpropanoid and flavonoid Moustafa and Wong (17); quercetin 3-glucoside was synthesized as previously described (2).Buffers. The buffers used are as follows: A, 0.2 M K2HPO4/ KH2PO4 (pH 8.0); B, 0.2 M K2HPO4/ KH2PO4 (pH 7.5); C, 0.1 M Tris-HCl (pH 7.6). All buffers contained 4 mM 2-mercaptoethanol.Determination of the Flavonol Glycoside Content. Approxima...