Repression of photosynthetic genes by increased soluble carbohydrate concentrations may explain acclimation of photosynthesis to elevated CO2 concentration. This hypothesis was examined in a field crop of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown at both ambient (approximately 360 μmol mol-1) and elevated (550 μmol mol-1) atmospheric CO2 concentrations using free-air CO2 enrichment at Maricopa, Arizona. The correspondence of steady-state levels of mRNA transcripts (coding for the 83-kD photosystem I apoprotein, sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphatase, phosphoribulokinase, phosphoglycerokinase, and the large and small subunits of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) with leaf carbohydrate concentrations (glucose-6-phosphate, glucose, fructose, sucrose, fructans, and starch) was examined at different stages of crop and leaf development and through the diurnal cycle. Overall only a weak correspondence between increased soluble carbohydrate concentrations and decreased levels for nuclear gene transcripts was found. The difference in soluble carbohydrate concentration between leaves grown at elevated and current ambient CO2 concentrations diminished with crop development, whereas the difference in transcript levels increased. In the flag leaf, soluble carbohydrate concentrations declined markedly with the onset of grain filling; yet transcript levels also declined. The results suggest that, whereas the hypothesis may hold well in model laboratory systems, many other factors modified its significance in this field wheat crop.