To examine the role of isoamylase1 (ISA1) in amylopectin biosynthesis in plants, a genomic DNA fragment from Aegilops tauschii was introduced into the ISA1-deficient rice (Oryza sativa) sugary-1 mutant line EM914, in which endosperm starch is completely replaced by phytoglycogen. A. tauschii is the D genome donor of wheat (Triticum aestivum), and the introduced fragment effectively included the gene for ISA1 for wheat (TaISA1) that was encoded on the D genome. In TaISA1-expressing rice endosperm, phytoglycogen synthesis was substantially replaced by starch synthesis, leaving only residual levels of phytoglycogen. The levels of residual phytoglycogen present were inversely proportional to the expression level of the TaISA1 protein, although the level of pullulanase that had been reduced in EM914 was restored to the same level as that in the wild type. Small but significant differences were found in the amylopectin chain-length distribution, gelatinization temperatures, and A-type x-ray diffraction patterns of the starches from lines expressing TaISA1 when compared with wild-type rice starch, although in the first two parameters, the effect was proportional to the expression level of TaISA. The impact of expression levels of ISA1 on starch structure and properties provides support for the view that ISA1 is directly involved in the synthesis of amylopectin.Amylopectin is generally the major constituent of starch, accounting for about 65% to 85% of storage starch. The remainder is amylose, which is essentially linear. Amylopectin has a defined structure composed of tandem linked clusters (approximately 9-10 nm each in length), where linear a-1,4-glucan chains are regularly branched via a-1,6-glucosidic linkages, whereas the glycogens of bacteria and animals have a more randomly branched structure (Thompson, 2000). The distinct structure of amylopectin (referred to as a tandem-cluster structure) contributes to the crystalline organization of the starch granule (Gallant et al., 1997). Variation of the cluster fine structure is considered to cause variations in starch functional properties between species (e.g. maize [Zea mays] starch versus potato [Solanum tuberosum] starch), tissues (e.g. storage starch versus assimilatory starch), and genetic backgrounds (e.g. japonica rice [Oryza sativa] starch versus indica rice starch). However, genetic engineering could remove such species-specific limitations of starch functional properties by modifying the fine structure of amylopectin in a variety of ways.According to our current understanding, the structure of amylopectin is determined by four classes of enzymes: ADP-Glc pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), soluble starch synthase (SS), starch-branching enzyme (BE), and starch-debranching enzyme (DBE; Van den Koornhuyse et al., 1996;Smith et al., 1997;Kossmann and Lloyd, 2000;Myers et al., 2000;Nakamura, 2002;Ball and Morell, 2003;James et al., 2003). A current focus of research in starch biosynthesis is to evaluate the metabolic functions of individual enzymes involved in amylopecti...