Oxygen transfer characteristics of self-immobilized Solanum aviculare cells were measured using aggregates 3.0 to 12.5 mm in diameter. Apparent specific oxygen uptake rates in the absence of external boundary layers varied from 5.9 x 10(-11) to 8.5 x 10(-7) kg kg(-1) s(-1) dry weight, but did not decline continuously with increasing particle size. The effective diffusivity of oxygen in deactivated aggregates increased with particle diameter, varying from 5.0 x 10(-11) to 1.0 x 10(-9) m(2) s(-1) or between 2% and 40% of the molecular diffusivity in water at the same temperature. Gas spaces detected in the larger aggregates were confined to the central core and were not distributed throughout the tissue to facilitate oxygen transfer. Oxygen consumption rates in the absence of diffusional limitations were estimated using the relationship between the observable Thiele modulus and effectiveness factor for zero-order reaction. The calculated results indicated severe oxygen limitations in the aggregates, but were inconsistent with the observation that relatively large S. aviculare aggregates contained a high fraction of viable cells and were capable ofactive growth and steroidal alkaloid synthesis. This work suggests that oxygen delivery is facilitated in living plant cell aggregates by mechanisms which depend on metabolic activity and which do not function in deactivated cells. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons Inc.