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Development and Growth Regulation

Quantification of the Kinetin Effect on Protein Synthesis and Degradation in Senescing Wheat Leaves ^1,2

Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas FIBA, Casilla de Correos 1348, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina

Wheat leaves (Triticum aestivum L. cv San Agustin INTA) were detached when they reached maximum expansion, put individually in tubes containing water and left in darkness. After 3 days the protein content had decreased to 46% of the initial value. When the leaves were placed in 1 micromolar kinetin, they retained 60% of the initial protein content for the same period. This effect was observed only when leaves were treated with kinetin within the first 24 hours after detachment. The action of kinetin on both protein synthesis and degradation was quantitatively measured. Synthesis was estimated by the incorporation of L-[³H]leucine into proteins. It was higher in kinetin treated than in non treated leaves. It contributed to about 14 micrograms of protein retention per leaf in 3 days. Measurement of protein degradation, evaluated by the decay of radioactivity in leaf proteins previously labeled with L-[³H] leucine or as the difference between rates of protein synthesis and protein content, showed that kinetin decreased protein breakdown rates. It accounted for about 186 micrograms of protein retention per leaf in 3 days. Hence, kinetin action on protein breakdown was 13-fold average higher than its action on synthesis for the conservation of leaf protein. This difference is higher in early stages of the process.

¹ Dedicated to Professor L. F. Leloir on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

² Partially supported by the Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la provincia de Buenos Aires (CIC), the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina, and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, F.R.G.