SESSION VI. DISCUSSION 579 



7. Es erscheint nicht ohne Bedeutung, daß die höhere Pflanze, sofern sie nicht viel 

 freie Säure hat, neutrale Formen der NH3- Speicherung bevorzugt: Glutamin, Asparagin, 

 AUantoin, Citrullin, Acetylornithin. 



8. Die Blätter aller Pflanzen, gleichgültig ob sie dem Glutamin-, Asparagin-, 

 AUantoin-, Citrullin- oder Acetylornithin-Typ zugehören, bilden beim Eintauchen in 

 NHl-Lösimgen sehr schnell fast ausschließlich Glutamin. 



Diese Untersuchungen wurden mit Fräulein Dr. Engelbrecht, Herrn Dr. Reuter und 

 Frl. Liß durchgeführt. 



Pflanzenphysiologisches Institut der Universitaet, 

 Halle, Deutschland 



A. Blagoveshchenskii (U.S.S.R.): 



The evolution of protein material undoubtedly determines the evolution of organisms. 

 It is, therefore, one of the urgent tasks of biochemistry to establish the laws which con- 

 nect the character of the protein substances with the organisms. It is important to establish 

 which proteins are characteristic of the ancestral forms and which are characteristic of 

 their successors; which processes of protein synthesis are essentially progressive in the 

 evolving organism and which are in regression. First there must be closer contact with 

 phylogenetical biologists and investigations must be carried out within the limits laid 

 down by evolutionary series. In 1949 the excellent experimental findings of Danielsson 

 appeared, showing that in the seeds of representatives of the family Leguminosae there 

 are two globulins, viciUn, with molecular weight of 186,000, and legumin, with a molecular 

 weight of 331,000. By analysing Danielsson's figures we have called attention to the fact 

 that they contain a regularity which the author had not noticed, namely that the phylo- 

 genetically recent forms {Acacia in the Mimosoidae and Pisum, Phaseolus and Trifolium 

 in the Papilionatae) there is a decisive predominance of vicilin, whereas, in the more 

 archaic forms (Arachis, Genista and Lathyrus in the Papilionatae) legumin predominates. 

 When we investigated the seeds of Albizzia jalibrissin, which belongs to the Mimosoidae, 

 we foimd that 37% of the total quantity of protein is soluble in water and 9% is not 

 soluble, either in water or in saline solutions but only in alkali. In more archaic, phylo- 

 genetically more ancient, forms {Cercis siliquastrum, Sophora japonica, Maakia amurensis, 

 Gleditschia triacanthus) on the other hand, there were either no proteins extractable with 

 water or saline solutions (Cercis) or else they were less in amount than those which were 

 soluble in alkaU. 



By comparing the nature of the protein in the seeds with the phylogenesis of the plants 

 concerned, it is easy to draw the conclusion that the proteins of evolutionarily recent 

 forms are more soluble, harder to salt out and have a lower molecular weight than those 

 of the more archaic, regressive forms which are becoming extinct. It is interesting that 

 the recent investigations of I. D. Raacke {Biochem.J., 66, loi, no, 113, 1957) have shown 

 that this state of affairs is repeated in ontogenesis. During the ripening of peas, from the 

 moment of fertilization to full ripeness, the content of water soluble albumins falls while 

 that of vicilin rises and, at the very end of the process, that of legumin also rises. Such a 

 process of change in the nature of the protein of the seed, with ontogenic and phylogenic 

 ageing, is associated with a change in the ability of enzymes to lower the threshold of the 

 reactions which they catalyse. This ability decreases in both cases. 



N. S. Akulov (U.S.S.R.): 



Darwinian Biological Evolution as a Higher Form of the General 

 Evolution of Chain Processes in Nature 



In his generally accepted theory A. I. Oparin has shown the part played by coacervates 

 in the process of the emergence of life. It would, however, be incorrect to say that this 



