Protein Synthesis in Plants

The object of this review, which lays considerable stress on methodology, is to assess present knowledge of the mechanism of protein synthesis in plants. Information has been obtained in the main from in vitro studies using cell-free preparations of various sub-cellular organelles which, although often contaminated to some extent with bacteria, incorporate amino acids into peptidyl material. As pointed out in the last review on this topic in this series (128), net protein synthesis has not been unequivocally demon­ strated in plant cell-free systems. Data derived from organisms other than higher plants will be quoted briefly where they are helpful to our understand­ ing of the mechanism of protein synthesis in higher plants. The possible in­ terrelation of growth substances and nucleic acids in the control of protein synthesis will not be considered as it has recently been reviewed elsewhere (102).