ON THE ACTIVATION OF CERTAIN ESSENTIAL BIOSYNTHETIC SYSTEMS IN CELLS OF VINCA ROSEA L

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Abstract
The results of studies to indicate that 6 of the 7 essential biosynthetic systems shown to be permanently unblocked in the crown-gall tumor cell are, either directly or indirectly, ion-activatable systems. Only the activation of the metabolic system concerned with the synthesis of the mitogenic hormone, kinin, cannot as yet be accounted for on that basis. These studies indicate, that changes in membrane permeability or in ion-transport systems accompany the cellular transformation. Such changes would appear to represent a most fundamental difference between a normal plant cell and a crown-gall tumor cell, since they permit the activation by ions of a large segment of the metabolism concerned specifically with cell growth and division. These studies may also give insight into the mechanism by which such biosynthetic systems are regulated in cells of normal plants. It is interesting to speculate, on the basis of work reported above, that the mechanism involved in the activation of the auxin synthesizing system by normal cell types in culture may be similar to that concerned with the synthesis of large amounts of auxin by cells in the meristematic regions of actively growing roots and shoots in an intact plant.