In the present work we compare responses to hypoxia of the carbohydrate content of related plant species, which grow naturally on sites prone to flooding (Senecio aquaticus Hill., Myosotis palustris (L.) Lehm. Rchb.) with plants from habitats with only a low risk of oxygen shortage (Senecio jacobaea L., Myosotis arvensis (L.) Hill.). Whilst the amounts of glucose, fructose and sucrose changed only slightly following hypoxia and peaked at a maximum approximately double that of the aerated control specimens, the fructan content increased fivefold to tenfold. In nearly all the plants studied, fructan became the main polysaccharide reserve. For example, the flooding-tolerant Senecio aquaticus accumulated the highest amount, in particular fructans with a degree of polymerization up to 35 compared with 10 under control conditions. Nearly 70% of the soluble carbohydrates were fructans, compared with 30% under aerated conditions.

In all species tested the starch fraction marginally increased or remained constant.

Fructans were found to accumulate as a response to oxygen deficiency in both flooding-tolerant and intolerant species but with higher absolute values and ratios between fructan and starch in the flooding-tolerant species. At 24 h after the onset of hypoxic treatment, the sugar content rose, in spite of the diminished photosynthetic rates. The ability to accumulate fructans seems to vary in plants coping with oxygen shortage but could be interpreted as advantageous in comparison to starch synthesis in terms of (i) the location of the fructan metabolism in the vacuoles, with no negative feedback in the photosynthetic apparatus and (ii) the possibility of storage of sucrose in the form of fructose polymers without the intermediate stages and energy-using processes which are indispensable for starch synthesis. These results might indicate that fructan metabolism could play a role in the tolerance of oxygen deficiency.