SUCCINIC ACID AS A METABOLITE IN PLANT TISSUES

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Abstract
Succinic acid is shown to be present in a number of normal plant tissues although the proportion found was in all cases considerably < 1% of the dry wt. As compared with malic, oxalic, or citric acid, it is a minor acid constituent. A study was made of the behavior of succinic acid during the development of the tobacco plant. The extensive changes in amt. and in conc. that this substance undergoes indicate that it may be regarded as one of the more active metabolites of the tissues. Although no direct support was found for Chibnall''s view that respiration in plant tissues is to be accounted for in terms of the Krebs citric acid cycle, the observations show that one more of the acids concerned in this scheme of reactions is widely distributed in plants, and that the changes in amt. present, at different stages of growth of the tobacco plant, are such as to suggest that succinic acid is involved in the reactions that take place within the cells. This behavior is to be anticipated if some such cyclic series of chem. reactions does indeed lie at the basis of one of the fundamental physiol. functions of plant cells.

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