Anthocyanin Synthesis in Corn Endosperm Tissue Cultures. II. Effect of Certain Inhibitory and Stimulatory Agents.

In a previous paper (7), the advantages of corn endosperm tissue cultures as an experimental tool in attacking the problem of anthocyanin synthesis were pointed out. The general culture conditions, the identity of the pigments, and the requirement for light were reported in the same paper. Thimann and Radner (11, 12) have shown that anthocyanin synthesis in Spirodela is inhibited by -purine and pyrimidine antagonists, by certain sulfurcontaining compounds and certain amino acids. They also demonstrated (13) that riboflavine reverses the inhibition caused by many of these substances, and further that riboflavine substitutes for the light reaction involved in anthocyanin production by Spirodela. When work on the current problem was begun, it was expected that the effect of various chemicals on anthocyanin synthesis in both the endosperm cultures and Spirodela would prove to be similar. As this report will indicate, however, data obtained so far show that pigment synthesis in the two systems is affected differently by certain of the same compounds tested.