Question

Explain why it is an advantage for plants to store carbohydrates as starch rather than as sugars​

Answer 1

Answer:

More energy are packed into less space by starch molecules far more than glucose or sucrose yet they are able to release this energy easily, hence maximizing both storage and mobilization.

Explanation:

When plants have a period of dormancy to survive, they store their food as starch. They store enough of this energy so as to be able to restart with and to be able to maintain metabolism for the entire period of dormancy.

In addition, we know that starch is not water soluble, hence, lacks the ability to pull water into storage cells or cause irregularity in water balance. More energy are packed into less space by starch molecules far more than glucose or sucrose yet they are able to release this energy easily, hence maximizing both storage and mobilization.

Glucose is not directly transported by plants to storage. Rather, in a plant stem, the form of carbohydrate being transported is sucrose and this is because it is a non-reducing and does not react with oxygen during transport in the stem to specialized storage plastids.