Studies on the greening of cultured soybean and ruta cells: III. Effects of minorelement deficiency on the growth and photosynthetic activities of ruta cells

(1) The green cells of Ruta graveolens took up sucrose from the medium more promptly in the light than in darkness, and the final dry weight of the cultures in the light was nearly two times of that in darkness. (2) The chlorophyll production of Ruta cells in the light increased remarkably at the later stage of the culture period when the concentration of sucrose in the medium decreased and the growth rate of the cells declined. (3) From an estimation concerned with the dry matter production and contents of minorelements in their deficiency cultures, the order in the comparative requirements of five elements for growth was infered as follows: Zinc, Iron & Manganese & Copper & Molybdenum (4) The effects of iron deficiency in the successive subculture appeared on chlorophyll production at the early stage and on the growth in terms of dry weight and photosynthetic CO₂ fixation. (5) The effects of manganese deficiency were observed more easily on photosynthetic CO₂ fixation and the Hill activity than on chlorophyll production.