Isolation of a Specific Potato Tuber-Inducing Substance from Potato Leaves

Abstract

Potato tuberization is induced by an unidentified “tuberization stimulus” which is produced in the leaves. Recently, we confirmed the occurrence of two acidic substances in the leaves which appear to be the stimulus (Koda and Okazawa 1988). We report here the isolation of one of the substances from potato leaves. The molecular weight of the substance is 388. The substance is active in inducing tuberization in vitro at a concentration of 0.01 mg- liter-11 (ca. 3 × 10-8 M).