Genetic Tumors of Nicotiana. I. Chemical Composition of N. glauca, N. langsdorffii, & Their F1 Hybrid

The F1 hybrid of Nicotiana glauca Grah. and N. langsdorffii Weinm. is well known for its spontaneous tumor-producing ability. Most investigations concerning plant tumors are in the field of genetics or cytology (2,4,6); a few deal with the free amino acid levels of N. glauca, N. langsdorffii and their hybrid (1, 3, 8). However, no references are available on the general chemical composition of the important organic constituent of the plants and their tumorous and visibly non-tumorous tissues. Anders and Vester (1) and Vester and Andrews (8) suggested that the abnormally high free amino acid content in the hybrid plant is connected with the spontaneous formation of tumors. Hagen and Gunckel (3) reported that gamma irradiation caused the leaf abnormalities of the parent species and their hybrid and a concomitant increase in the free amino acid content of these leaves. In this paper we report investigation on the chemical composition of alkaloids, sugars, organic acids. and free amino acids in N. glauca, and N. langsdorffii, and in the tumorous and visibly non-tumorous tissues obtained from F1 (N. glauca X N. langsdorffii) plants at different anatomical locations, in different culture media, and at various stages of plant development.