Abstract
The rate of DNA synthesis in the course of the division cycle in root meristem ofAllium cepa growing under constant temperature and aeration conditions has been studied by means of treatment with AdR, as a specific inhibitor of the synthesis, as well as by the incorporation of tritiated thymidine. The one-hour treatment with AdR or tritiated thymidine was given at various hours in the course of the interphase of a synchronous population of binucleate cells induced by caffeine. In the case of AdR, sensitivity to the inhibition of DNA synthesis was studied by recording the delays produced by the treatment in the appearance of biprophases and bitelophases. The selection by the use of caffeine, of spontaneously synchronous populations of cells going through the telophase and becoming binucleate and the detection of the first biprophases in the subsequent mitosis provide a highly synchronized system with which to study the incorporation of tritiated thymidine during the interphase. The curves representing sensitivity to the inhibition of DNA synthesis by AdR and the rate of tritiated thymidine incorporation coincide, so that we can regard the delays, under our conditions, as proportional to the rate of DNA synthesis at the moment of the AdR treatment. This rate, in the S period, was found to be variable by both methods, being higher in the first and the last thirds of the S period (S1 and S3) and lower in the middle third (S2).
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Fernández-Gómez, M.E., Stockert, J.C., González-Fernández, A. et al. Delays in prophase induced by adenosine 2-deoxyriboside and their relation with DNA synthesis. Chromosoma 29, 1–11 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183657
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183657