Tissue Culture Studies on Vicia Faba

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Abstract
The effects of commercially available nucleic acids, their salts or their precursors on the mitotic pattern of cultures cells of Vicia faba L. under liquid shaking conditions were observed. Cell aggregates growing in a control medium showed only an occasional aberration. In a medium containing nucleic acids or their salts, a few of the cell aggregates showed fragmentation, formation of micronuclei, the so-called "reductional grouping", and other chromosomal aberrations. One pronounced effect was the high incidence of polyploid cells at different stages of division. When cell aggregates were incubated in a medium containing nucleic acid precursors (thymidine, cytidine or uridine), there was also a high incidence of polyploid cells in active stages of division. Giant cells and giant nuclei were frequently seen in these cells, some of them in metaphase stages. Observations suggest that there may not be any relationship between an additional supply of nucleic acids in a culture medium and the occurrence of reduction-division processes in somatic cells. The possibilities of using tissue culture techniques in studying mitotic processes in polyploid cells is promising.