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HISTOCHEMICAL LOCALIZATION OF ENZYME ACTIVITIES IN ROOT MERISTEM CELLS
Author(s) -
Avers Charlotte J.
Publication year - 1961
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1961.tb11616.x
Subject(s) - biology , biochemistry , succinate dehydrogenase , botany , atpase , phleum , enzyme
A vers , C harlotte J. (Douglass Coll., Rutgers—The State University, New Brunswick, N. J.) Histochemical localization of enzyme activities in root meristem cells. Amer. Jour. Bot. 48(2): 137–143. Illus. 1961,—Particle counts were made in epidermal cells of the root meristem of 2 grasses after exposure of living seedlings to various substrates involved in dehydrogenation reactions. Hydrolytic enzyme activities also were recorded for 1 of these species. The mean number of particles stained with Janus green B was about 90 for each species, but significantly lower counts were obtained in all the dehydrogenase tests. With lactate, pyruvate, glutamate, citrate, and isocitrate as substrates, Phleum cells showed about 25% of the Janus green count, while Panicum cells were about 33% active. These substrates are known to be oxidized by DPN‐linked enzymes. The succinic dehydrogenase counts were about 50% of the Janus green total, and 60–70% particle activity was recorded with hexose‐phosphate substrates which are probably oxidized in TPN‐mediated reactions. In Phleum , particulate activity occurred in the adenosine triphosphatase and aryl sulfatase tests, but a non‐particulate distribution characterized 5‐nucleotidase activity. The particle counts in the ATPase tests were not significantly different from the Janus green counts, but the 85% particle activity in the aryl sulfatase tests was significantly lower than the Janus green results. These intracellular distributions were compared with those obtained by various authors using biochemical and histochemical techniques and were found to be in close agreement. It was suggested that the evidence indicated intracellular differentiation of at least one kind of cellular organelle, which in all probability was mitochondria.