The Permeability Coefficients of the Plasmalemma and the Chloroplast Envelope of Spinach Mesophyll Cells for Phytohormones

Abstract

Abstract The uptake of auxin (LAA), abscisic acid (ABA) the synthetic cytokinin benzylaminopurine (BA), gibberellic acid (GA3) and mevalonic acid (lactone) (MVA) into intact chloroplasts and protoplasts from spinach mesophyll cells was measured and the permeability coefficients Ps of the chloroplast envelope and the plasmalemma were calculated. With all solutes tested uptake and P s values were considerably higher in the chloroplast system than in the protoplast system. At an external pH of 7.0, rates of uptake exhibited the order BA > LAA > MVA > ABA > GA3 in both systems. However, the P s values (corrected for the undissociated species of the solutes) exhibited the order LAA > GA3 > (ABA or BA) > MVA. This corrected sequence indicates the theoretical capacity of penetration under the assumption that preferentially the protonated species of phytohormones are capable of readily penetrating membranes. P s values for phytohormones appeared largely to be determined by the distribution coefficient K d and to a lesser extent by the molecular weight (Mr). In the Collander-plot the relation between the logarithm of Ps values for phytohormones and some other solutes such as acetate, glycerol, glucose, sorbitol and sucrose and the logarithm of K J M T 1.5 approached linearity.