Cytological Studies on the Effect of Herbicides on Plant Cells in vivo I

Hormonic herbicides

Abstract

By means of the in vivo observation, the effect of various herbicides on cells in the metabolic as well as in the mitotic state was studied in the staminal hair cells of Tradescantia, the stipular cells of Vicia faba, the petal cells of Allium fistulosum and Allium cepa, the isolated cells of Triticum vulgare root tips and the cells of pollen grains in Tradescantia.
The effect of the five hormonic herbicides, 2, 4-D, 2, 4, 5-T, 2, 5-D, MCP and SES, was summarized in Table 1. The abnormal mitoses induced by these chemicals, showed chromosome bridges due to stickiness, a retardation of chromosome movement in anaphase, a binucleate cell, a multinucleate cell with multi-septa, a formation of the incomplete cell wall and an impediment in the differentiation of meristematic tissues. These effects of the herbicides on the mitotic cells revealed intimate connections with the herbicidal activity to weeds and with malformations to cultivated plants.
The different resistance of cells to the herbicides between monocotyledonous plants and dicotyledonous ones was discussed at the cellular level from the results of their different behaviour with regard to the occurrence of abnormal mitoses and the survival of cells.