Cytokinin-like active principle associated with rice necrosis mosaic virus induced growth promotion in jute (Corchorus olitoriusL.)

Rice necrosis mosaic virus-inoculated jute plants looked more juvenile with enhanced leaf size than control ones. Such enlarged leaves and those from control ones were collected separately and extracted in chilled methanol. The crude tissue extract in case of inoculated ones showed three times higher activity in bioassay for cytokinin over control. Biological assay with fractions of crude extract separated by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was ascertained, and one fraction from inoculated sample showing higher activity in terms of growth over respective control was selected. Ultraviolet/visible absorbance spectra of TLC-separated fractions revealed the presence of different quantities of similar kind of compounds in both control and inoculated samples. A major compound with same m/z value of 217.1 was found in both cases as revealed through electrospray ionisation mass spectrophotometry analysis along with some other minor compounds. Different proton–proton coupling and a molecular structure of the highly substituted aliphatic groups were found in the material from inoculated sample having higher cytokinin-like activity than the control one, which was noticed through 1H one-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance analysis.