ATP LEVEL AND CAFFEINE EFFICIENCY ON CYTOKINESIS INHIBITION IN PLANTS

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 27  (2) , 185-190
Abstract
Plant cytokinesis appears to be a topographically organized process of exocytosis. Golgi vesicles which contain cell wall precursors are translocated during telophase, by interzonal microtubules, to the equatorial region of the mitotic apparatus where they fuse with each other, giving rise to the new cell wall. Caffeine inhibits cytokinesis by hindering Golgi vesicle coalescence. Treatments which increase the cellular ATP level (adenosine, cycloheximide and anisomycin) counteract caffeine-induced cytokinesis inhibition in meristem cells of onion root tips (Allium cepa L.), while treatments which decrease ATP level potentiate this caffeine effect (dinitrophenol, fluoroacetate, low O2 tensions, etc.). It was postulated that caffeine, in competition with the cellular ATP level, blocks cell plate formation by inhibiting a certain ATPase activity required for membrane fusion of Golgi vesicles.

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