Video Transcript
When sugars are not being used by the plant, they can be stored as an insoluble compound. What compound are sugars mainly stored as in plants?
Plants make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, carbon dioxide and water are converted into glucose and oxygen. This process is powered by light energy. Glucose is the molecule that stores energy, which can be released when it reacts with oxygen during a process called aerobic respiration. Because of this, glucose needs to be converted into something else to be translocated or moved throughout the plant to the cells which need it to use energy.
Glucose reacts with fructose to form sucrose. Sucrose can be translocated because it does not react with oxygen like glucose would. So, if the plant has excess sugars, can it be stored as glucose or sucrose? Well, the answer is neither. This is because glucose and sucrose are both water soluble, which means that they will interfere with the water concentration in cells by increasing the solute concentration. So these sugars have to be stored as insoluble molecules.
Luckily, sugars can easily be converted into starch, a large, insoluble molecule that can be stored in plants. So the answer to our question is starch.
