CHEMICAL CHANGES DURING SPORE GERMINATION 77 



triving to get aiouiul iiaiiies preordained but superfluous and inconsistent 

 with ultimately clarified mechanisms. 



Another consequence I think we shall encounter, if we rush into this thing 

 hastily, is the danger of implying by a proposed terminology things we don't 

 intend at this stage. I strongly suspect that the uninitiated will infer from 

 such definitions that the germination process is a discontinuous state and 

 that names arbitrarily designating various stages stand for a series of in- 

 dividual and discrete events. To my mind, this is extremely far-fetched. 

 Germination at the present state of information is essentially a conceptual 

 and operational matter; and despite the lack of a series of specific definitions, 

 we certainly have little difficulty in communicating information and ideas on 

 the subject. Without doubt, more precise definitions of various stages based 

 on the very limited information and organisms studied thus far will belie the 

 situation as it is studied further and in more organisms. 



The germination process has to be regarded as a continuous event, and a 

 focal point of any objective for description of the phenomenon is what hap- 

 pens when the process is projected back to the prime event, namely at point 

 zero. Something happens there and it progresses — imperceptibly in the 

 beginning — until the gross change is large enough to recognize. At this 

 point we call it germination, a perfectly satisfactory designation, so long as 

 we recognize it as a mere culmination of an integrated series of previous 

 transformations. Until we can agree that these integrations will be qualita- 

 tively and quantitatively distinguishable in any one species, and the same 

 for all species, any rigid set of definitions will have become obsolete before it 

 is established. 



To reflect further on the nature of the germination process, it may well be 

 that what we currently regard as features of germination are only peripheral 

 phenomena distantly removed in physiological time from the initial qualita- 

 tive change. Point zero in the back-extrapolated curve will probably provide 

 the ultimate solution of germination in the sense of what I like to think of as 

 the "prime event." If we assemble all information bearing on the issue, 

 there is very little which is inconsistent with the idea that germination in 

 itself is a process identical with or akin to induced enzyme synthesis. It is 

 too lengthy a task to take the time here to justify this view in detail, and I 

 merely submit the following in a general way. 



Much like what we find in induced enzyme systems, germination requires 

 specific inducers and energy. I think it not without serious significance for 

 the whole problem of germination that the most effective inducers happen to 

 be 'substances closely tied in with the general function of making energy 

 available, e.g. glucose and adenosine (or inosine). Of course, the question 

 now comes up, what about alanine? I have purposely refrained from in- 



