On the Consumption of Asparagine in the Nutrition of Plants. 



BY 



Y. Kinoshita, Nogakushi. 



The fact that asparagine is formed whenever proteids undergo 

 decomposition in plants has been repeatedly made the subject 

 of close investigation by various authors, but much less atten- 

 tion has been hitherto paid to the reverse process — the 

 regeneration of proteids from asparagine. C. O. Midler^ has 

 asserted that this regeneration can only take place during the 

 process of assimilation in green leaves, and that the action of 

 light and the status nascens of carbohydrates are essential. As 

 this statement did not appear to me to be well-founded, quanti- 

 tative investigations being wanting, I undertook a series of 

 experiments in order to see whether this process might not 

 proceed in the dark. 



If we look upon the growing root from the physiological 

 point of view, we must hold it highly probable that the cells of 

 the root, although always deprived of light, are capable of 

 forming the proteids necessary for its growth and development 

 from suitable sources, such as sugar, nitrates, and sulphates, or 

 sugar, asparagine, and sulphates. It is a well known fact that 

 mould fungi can form their proteids in this way, in complete 

 darkness, and that certain fungi, especially bacteria, grow even 

 much better in the dark than in day-light ; it may, therefore, be 

 surmised that the formation of proteids and protoplasm may also 

 proceed better in darkness. 



The relative amount of glucose, or other suitable material, 

 seemed to me the most decisive factor in the transformation of 

 asparagine into proteids. I, therefore, selected shoots of soya- 

 beans, which are rich in asparagine, and tried to nourish them 

 with organic materials, repeatedly making microscopical tests, 

 in the usual way, with alcohol, as described by Borodin, Pfeffer, 



(i) Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss d. Eiweissbildung in der Pflanze. Landw. 

 Versuchst. Bd. 33, p. 11. 



