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Genetic and metabolic regulation in differentiating plant storage tissue cells

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Conclusion

Resting plant storage organs, e.g., potato tubers, carrots or sugar beets usually exhibit a very low metabolic activity. Slicing into thin disks and incubation of these tissue fragments in a moist atmosphere, however, leads to a coordinated genetic and metabolic effort to adapt the exposed cells to their new environment. Nearly all reactions occurduring this struggle are dependent on genetic activity: slicing strikingly mimics well known hormone effects in mammalian systems and most certainly evokes an induction similar to that of the hormones (e.g., estrogen on uterine cells, Table VIII). Moreover, the cell controls the magnitude of induced reactions by way of its considerable inductive, repressive or modifying capabilities.

However, in sharp contrast to the widely studied hormone systems of the plant and animal kingdoms, plant storage tissue slices and their capabilities have been largely neglected until now or are not known at all. Nevertheless they provide an excellent example of genetic and metabolic regulation occurring side by side and easy-to-handle material for the study of the elementary processes at the gene level following derepression of previously repressed genes in multicellular organisms.

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  1. Fachbereich Biologie, University Frankfurt, Germany

    Günter Kahl

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Kahl, G. Genetic and metabolic regulation in differentiating plant storage tissue cells. Bot. Rev 39, 274–299 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02860120

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