The biosynthesis of putrescine in higher plants and its relation to potassium nutrition

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Abstract
In potassium-deficient barley plants 1,4-diaminobutane (putrescine) occurs together with a Sakaguchi- and ninhydrin-positive compound, whose infrared spectrum and chromatographic properties are identical with those of 1-amino-4-guanidinobutane (agmatine). Agmatine and putrescine occur in potassium-deficient red-clover plants. Under conditions of adequate potassium nutrition, agmatine and putrescine were found in barley and clover, and also in cabbage leaves, but the amounts were small relative to those in the potassium-deficient plants. The putrescine concentration in barley seedlings was considerably increased by feeding with agmatine, a much smaller increase being induced by giving ornithine or arginine. Feeding with arginine increased the concentration of a Sakaguchi-positive compound, which was chromatographically indistinguishable from agmatine.