Biochemical Mutations in the Crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.

Abstract

THE photosynthetic flowering plants possess a greater capacity for synthesis of crystalloids than any other group of organisms. Their complete exogenous requirements for growth consist of only fourteen elements and the two compounds carbon dioxide and water. No intact flowering plant, with the exception of those lacking chlorophyll, has been shown to require any organic compound apart, of course, from carbon dioxide. I have now attempted to examine plant biosynthesis by the ‘mutational block’ method, which has been of great success in the analysis of metabolism in haploid micro-organisms.