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Environmental and Stress Physiology

Senescence and Stomatal Aperture as Affected by Antibiotics in Darkness and Light ¹

The Thimann Laboratories, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064

In leaves of barley (Hordeum vulgare), as previously found with oats (Avena sativa), a group of six antibiotics that interfere in different ways with the sequence DNA mRNA protein all delay senescence in the dark, acting to conserve chlorophyll (Chl) and protein and also to open the stomata. Among the active compounds is chloramphenicol, which had previously been reported to act only on procaryotes. It is now shown that all these compounds with senescence-delaying action in darkness have the opposite effect in light, accelerating Chl destruction and partially or completely closing the stomata. Leaves of the dicot Tropaeolum majus show most of the same responses, though the changes in protein and amino acids are more variable. The data as a whole support the previous conclusion that the synthesis of one or more proteins controls both the opening and the closing of the stomata. An additional compound, kanamycin, acts in the same way as the other six compounds on oats and barley, though its action on proteolysis is unclear. On Tropaeolum, however, it opens the stomata in both light and darkness. Anisomycin and ethidium bromide have comparably atypical effects. Thus, although changes in stomatal opening or closing in the majority of cases are closely linked to the breakdown or preservation of Chl, the occasional exception shows that the biochemical phenomena of senescence cannot be under the direct control of changes in stomatal aperture.

³ Present address: The Quadrangle, 3300 Darby Road, Haverford, PA 19041.

¹ This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, No. DMB 850-3051 to K. V. T., and in part by a grant from the Dean of Natural Sciences.