Solanine, the green substance in potato, Solanum tuberosum L., tubers, is a toxic glycoalkaloid that is a potential human health hazard. To control the formation of this glycoalkaloid a greater understanding of its site of synthesis is needed. Labelling of solanidine, a direct precursor in the biosynthesis of solanine, with digitonin may indirectly locate the site of solanine synthesis in tubers. A study using ultrastructural cytochemical techniques was initiated to explore this possibility.
Sprouted tips and peridermal complex (periderm and cortex) tissue were fixed three different ways: (1) glutaraldehyde only, (2) osmium tetroxide and glutaraldehyde, and (3) glutaraldehyde-osmium tetroxide-digitonin mixture. The glutaraldehyde-osmium tetroxide-digitonin mixture provided the best fixation for this study and was used throughout.
An alkaloid extract of potato tissues incubated with digitonin resulted in a precipitate being formed. Application of the alkaloid extract to TLC plates before and after incubating with digitonin indicated only solanidine was removed by the digitonin.
In the electron micrographs the solanidine-digitonin complex was recognized as darkly stained needles or spicules. These spicules were observed mostly in the vacuoles in the sprouted tips. However, a few spicules were also noted in the cytoplasm. Relatively few spicules were observed in the peridermal tissue.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-4363 |
| Date | 01 May 1980 |
| Creators | Han, Shau-Ron |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). |
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