Proposed Procedure for the Allocation of Trivial Names to the Gibberellins

Abstract

THE symbols A₁, A₂, A₃ and A₄ were originally used by Takahashi et al.^1,2 to denote the first four gibberellins, isolated from the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi. This convenient trivial nomenclature was continued by MacMillan et al.^3–5, Cross et al.^6–8, Hanson^9,10 and Galt^11,12 to include gibberellins A₅ to A₁₇. Continuity of the sequence gibberellins A₁ to A₁₇ has been maintained, and confusion avoided, for the following two reasons. First, gibberellins A₁ to A₄ were named by one group at the University of Tokyo and gibberellins A₅ to A₁₇ by a second group, who kept in personal contact when the Akers Research Laboratories, ICI, Ltd., where they worked was closed down. Fortuitously, there was no overlap in time between the numbering of these two groups of gibberellins by these two groups of workers. Second, Tamura and his group and Mitsui and his colleagues have avoided possible confusion while waiting for an agreed procedure for the allocation of gibberellin A numbers, by using provisional names for their recently discovered plant gibberellins based on their source, namely, Bamboo^13,14, Pharbitis¹⁵, Canavalia-I and -II^16,17, Lupinus-I¹⁸ and Lupinus-II (personal communication from K. Koshimizu and T. Mitsui) gibberellins.