Assimilate partitioning in avocado, Persea americana

Assimilate partitioning is being studied in avocado, Persea americana cv. Millborrow in relation to fruit set. Single leaves on girdled branches of 10 year old trees were radiolabeled for 1 hr with 13μCi of 14CO2. The source leaves were sampled during the experiment to measure translocation rates. At harvest the sink tissues were dissected and the incorporated radioactivity was measured. The translocation of 14C-labelled compounds to other leaves was minimal. Incorporation of label into fruitlets varied with the tissue and the stage of development. Sink (fruitlets) nearest to the labelled leaf and sharing the same phyllotaxy incorporated the most 14C. Source leaves for single non-abscising fruitlets retained 3X more 14C-labelled compounds than did source leaves for 2 or more fruitlets at 31 hrs. post-labelling. Export of label decreased appreciably when fruitlets abscised. If fruitlets abscised within 4 days of labeling then the translocation pattern was similar to the pattern for single fruitlets. If the fruitlet abscised later, the translocation pattern was intermediate between the single and double fruitlet pattern