The influence of growth regulating substances on the development of enhanced metabolic rates in thin slices of beetroot storage tissue.

Freshly cut disks of beetroot tissue develop high rates of respiration, uptake of phosphate and activity of the enzyme invertase after having been washed for 18 hours in 0.01 m potassium maleate.Incubation of the disks in solutions of indole-3-acetic acid or kinetin completely prevented the development of the higher activities in all 3 systems assayed, while incubation in gibberellic acid had no inhibitory effect. Using a series of synthetic plant growth regulating compounds it was possible to establish that there was no correlation between the activity of the compound as an auxin and the ability of the compound to prevent the development of the enhanced rates of metabolism.