Comparison of Salicylate and 2:4-Dinitrophenol on the Growth of Wheat Coleoptiles

Abstract

SALICYLATE is a powerful metabolic stimulant. It increases oxygen consumption by man, both in health¹ and disease^1,2 and also by laboratory animals^3–5. This stimulant action was located at cellular level when the drug was found to increase the oxygen uptake of liver and brain slices⁶. In these respects salicylate resembles 2 : 4-dinitrophenol and the resemblance becomes all the more remarkable with the recent demonstration that salicylate also inhibits oxidative phosphorylation by mitochondrial preparations⁷. This is the essential biochemical action of 2 : 4-dinitrophenol^8,9, and the fact that salicylate possesses similar properties may explain their common effects. Further exploration of this possibility has been carried out in another field by comparing simultaneously the effect of salicylate and 2 : 4-dinitrophenol on wheat coleoptile growth; it has already been established that 2 : 4-dinitrophenol in low concentrations inhibits growth of corn coleoptiles¹⁰.