They also found that this new compound does not have an
effect on the cell division of animal cells, and that cell division restarts in plant cells upon removal of the compound.
Thus, the selectivity and reversibility of this new triarylmethane compound
on the cell division of plant cells makes it a good candidate for an agrochemical.
For example, a gene called p53, which normally acts as a
brake on cell division, turns out to be mutated or lost in about half of all tumours.
«Our palladium - catalyzed sequential arylation reaction has been highly useful to rapidly synthesize a variety of triarylmethanes to be used for testing their effect
on the cell division in plants,» says Nambo.
«Here, we show how a common growth signaling pathway in cells can destroy one of the
brakes on cell division to allow cell division to move forward,» Emanuele said.
Dr. Minako Ueda, Dr. Masakazu Nambo of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) of Nagoya University and their colleagues have reported in the journal Plant and Cell Physiology, on the development of a series of triarylmethane compounds, which were tested on plant cells to see their effect
on cell division.