Gibberellins: Structure and Metabolism

Abstract

The last comprehensive review on gibberellins in this series was by Paleg (1) and covered the literature through most of 1964. Since that time, research in the field has been very vigorous and cannot be covered in a single review, at least not if it is to be done critically, providing some analysis of the sub­ ject. This review, therefore, looks at the GAs themselves: their chemical structure, their biogenesis, transport, conversions, and a few related prob­ lems such as the so-called bound GAs. Gibberellins as regulators of plant growth and development will have to be the subject of some later review. A comprehensive survey of the chemistry and physiology of the GAs has been recently published by Tamura et al. (2), although its value for some readers may be impaired by the fact that it is written in Japanese. A transla­ tion should be seriously considered. Schneider et al. (3) have compiled a tabular survey of all GAs, their derivatives, and degradation products known by 1965. A brief, good review, which in times of coverage does not go much beyond Paleg's ( 1 ) , however, has been written by Brian (4); a review of GA biosynthesis has been published by Cross (5) . The relations between the action of GA (as well as other phytohormones) and nucleic acid and protein metabolism have recently been discussed by Key (6).