Abstract
CHUA1 has recently reported that 8-quinolinol sulphate, a compound with known antifungal and antibacterial properties, also has cytokinin-like activity. This conclusion was based on the fact that 8-quinolinol sulphate retarded the senescence of excised oat leaves. Two facts tend to diminish the validity of this conclusion: the bioassay is not specific for cytokinins—compounds other than cytokinins defer loss of chlorophyll and protein—and bacterial contamination hastens the senescence process. Thus in non-sterile conditions (which seem to be the conditions of Chua's1 experiment), a substance which merely inhibits micro-organism growth could indirectly retard senescence but still not in fact have cytokinin-like activity.
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References
Chua, S. E., Nature, 225, 101 (1970).
Miller, C. O., Proc. US Nat. Acad. Sci., 54, 1052 (1965).
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RAMESHWAR, A., STEPONKUS, P. Cytokinin-like Activity of 8-Quinolinol Sulphate. Nature 228, 1224–1225 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/2281224a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2281224a0
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