META- AND PYROPHOSPHATE WITHIN THE ALGAL CELL

Comparatively little attention has been given to the pyro and almost none to the meta form of phosphate in plant and animal studies. Since reporting the occurrence of pyrophosphate in muscle in 1928, LOHMANN (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) has conducted a number of experiments on the occurrence and transformation of pyrophosphate in animal tissue. He also made a few similar studies with yeast and plant material. Other work in which the pyro form of phosphate was considered was done by MEYERHOF and LOHMANN (14), BOYLAND (1), LEVITOV (4), EGGLETON and EGGLETON (2), EMBDEN, HEFTER, and LEHNARTZ (3), NEEDHAM and VAN HEYNINGEN (15), and ROCHE (16). According to LIOHMANN (7) and BOYLAND (1), about onefourth of the phosphate in yeast is in the pyro form. LEWITOW (4) reported that incubation of brewer's yeast did not alter the pyrophosphate content but that when this was done in the presence of glucose there was a considerable loss in pyrophosphate with a simultaneous decrease in orthophosphate. In most of the work, determinations for pyrophosphate might have included metaphosphate. WEISSFLOGG and MENGDEHL (19) found metaand pyrophosphate in the roots of corn only when they used these forms as the source of phosphate in their culture media. Even in these cases they were unable to detect either metaor pyrophosphate in the upper parts of the plant and concluded that these were converted into the ortho form before they reached the stems and leaves. Dr. RALPH MORGAN (private conversation) said that he believed metaphosphates were an important form in the living organism because they readily form complexes. An investigation was therefore undertaken to determine whether metaphosphate was present in living green plants and, if so, its relation to the presence of the ortho and pyro forms.