Interaction of Nucleotides with Auxins in Growth of Pea Stem Segments

Abstract

The demonstration that a complex is formed between auxins and pyridine nucleotides and the discovery that such complexes are inhibitory to certain PN-requiring dehydrogenases (1, 2, 6) has made it desirable to explore the possibilities that such a complex might be either uniquely or preferentially a cofactor for some key reaction (s) Since purine-containing compounds such as kinetin and adenine have been shown to have effects on growth, dry matter production, protein synthesis and morphological characteristics of plants (4), and since the auxin-PN complex is probably formed through the purine moiety of the nucleotides (1, 2), the possibility exists that any observed effect of the nucleotides on growth might be due to their conversion to kinin-like compounds.Experiments designed to provide information relating to these questions have been carried out using the increase in fresh weight of pea epicotyl segments (3) as an assay for growth response. Materials and MethodsThe plant material used was Pisum sativum, L., var. Alaska. The growth assay was an adaptation of that used by Galston and Hand (3).