Effect of Phenylboric Acid in duplicating the Morphology and the Associated Activity of Certain Oxidative Enzymes of a Pea Mutant

Abstract

WE have found¹ a correlation between a leaf-shape mutant in the tomato “lanceolate” (La⁺/La) and the level of activity of several oxidative enzymes. Haccius and Garrecht² reported that treatment of wild type tomato with phenylboric acid (PhB) duplicated the morphological effect of La⁺/La, and in a later report³ I showed that treatment with PhB simulates the effect of the La allele also with respect to the associated increase in the level of activity of tyrosinase, laccase, peroxidase and catalase. I proposed^3–5 that the primary action of PhB, as well as that of the gene La, is to cause the increase in the level of activity of these four oxidative enzymes and that they in turn, among other factors, affect the form of the leaf in the tomato. Haccius and Wilhelmi⁶ recently reported that PhB also simulates the morphological effect of several mutant genes affecting flowers in peas.