Isoenzymes of acid phosphatase and non-specific esterases in cultures of neoplastic and normal tobacco tissues.

Axenic cultures of normal, habituated and crown gall teratoma were grown under varying conditions to examine the effects of environment on the expression of neoplastic character. Acid phosphatase patterns on polyacrylamide gels did not vary greatly among tissues although there were differences in acid phosphatase activity between various strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the bacteria which cause crown gall. Certain esterase isoenzymes were found only in tissues grown on specific media, while others were tissue-specific but independent of the nature of the medium. Comparisons of liquid and solid grown cultures revealed that culture conditions also influence esterase expression. Both sunflower and tobacco crown gall tissue contained an esterase not found in habituated or normal tissues, and similar in electrophoretic mobility to an esterase found in extracts of the bacteria that had induced the tumors. The basic difference between the three tissue types studied is the manner in which they respond to a given environment.