Working model for proposed mechanism of thiourea (TU) mediated action.

<p>Overall, the study deals with the modulation of source (leaves) and sink (pods) strength under TU treatment. The key steps are depicted as red bold letters. The green and red arrows represent the increase and decrease in expression/activity of associated gene/protein, respectively. The broken green arrow represents the non-coordinated change. The TU mediated increased photosynthetic efficiency coupled with higher expression level of sugar transporter (TPT) and activities of FPBase and SPS provided building blocks for enhanced sucrose biosynthesis at cytoplasm. The SUT-4 dependent vacuolar sequestration and enhanced activities of INVs and SuSy further supported the sucrose synthesis through feed-forward regulation. After unloading at sink, the photoassimilates gets channelized towards ACC-mediated oil biosynthesis either through glycolytic or PEPC pathway. Abbreviations: 3PGA: 3-phosphogyyceric acid; ACC: acetyl CO-A carboxylase; AGPase: ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase; cINV: cytosolic invertases; cwINV: cell wall bound invertases; DAHP: dihydroxy acetone phosphate; F-6-P: fructose-6-phosphate; F-1,6-bis P: fructose-1,6-bis phosphate; FBPase: fructose-1,6-bis phosphatase; G-6-P: glucose-6-phosphate; G-1-P: glucose-1-phosphate; G6PT: glucose-6-phosphate transporter; Gly-3-P: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; HPI: hexose phosphate isomerase; MAL: malate; MDH: malate dehydrogenase; OAA: oxaloacetate; PEP: phosphoenol pyruvate; PEPC: phosphoenol pyruvate carboxylase; ME: Malic enzyme; PGM: phosphoglucomutase; Pi: inorganic phosphate; PYR: pyruvate; Rubisco: ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase; S6P: sucrose-6-phosphate; SPS: sucrose phosphate synthase; SuSy: sucrose synthase; SUT: sucrose transporter; TPI: triose phosphate isomerase; TPT: triose-phosphate transporter; Triose-P: triose phosphate; UDPG: UDP-glucose; vINV: vacuolar invertases; glucose; fructose.