A tumor growth factor was extracted from primary pinto bean leaves {Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. “Pinto”) having crown‐gall tumors. Application of these extracts to primary pinto bean leaves at day 3 after inoculation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Smith and Town.) Conn resulted in an increase in the diameter of tumors on these leaves after 24 hours that was 25–60 percent greater than that of the controls. No growth promoting activity was detected in comparable extracts from control leaves or from cultures of the bacterium. The tumor growth factor did not affect tumor number when applied in this fashion. The active extracts were fractionated on Sephadex (1–15 columns and an active component obtained which eluted in a volume suggesting a molecular weight in the range of 100–200. A spectrum of the material in this fraction is shown and some of the characteristics of this material are described. Reasons are presented for considering this growth factor to be identical with at least one of the growth factors previously hypothesized to account for the greater tumor growth observed as tumor number is increased in this system.

The growth of crown‐gall tumors on primary pinto bean leaves (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. “Pinto”) between day 3 and day 6 after inoculation was found to be proportional to the number of tumors on the leaves. Similar differences observed in the growth of tumors induced by adenine, methionine and asparagine requiring mutants of Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Smith and Town.) Conn appear to be due to the same phenomenon. Tumors induced by these auxotrophs thus show no obvious growth differences from those induced by the prototrophic strain despite the lower specific infectivity and the existence of a mutational lesion in these bacteria. A diffusible growth factor(s) produced by the tumor tissue is proposed to account for the relation between tumor number and early tumor growth.

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