Cytokinins belong to a class of plant hormones that play a crucial role during the
cell division cycle. They influence numerous developmental processes such as shoot
growth and branching, apical dominance and leaf senescence [1]. The natural cytokinins
are adenine derivatives classified according to the side-chain attached at the N6 atom of adenine moiety into isoprenoid, e.g. N6-isopentenyladenine (iP), trans-zeatin (t-Z) and cis-zeatin (c-Z), and aromatic cytokinins, e.g. N6-benzyladenine (BA), kinetin (K). These cytokinins and their derivatives can be also
used for affinity chromatography based on covalent immobilization of cytokinin to
a solid matrix. This approach is very promising for purification, separation and identification
of a range of binding proteins present in plant tissues at various stage of their
development [2]. Targeted design of N9-substituted derivatives of iP was made with the aim to prepare suitable affinity
ligands of this cytokinin. The N9-substituents had selected from a group containing a saturated alkyl chains with two,
three or four carbon atoms terminated by various functional groups such as -Cl, -Br,
-NH2, -N3, -CN, -OH, -COOH or –COOEt, which are usable to form a natural spacer-arm. All of
the prepared compounds were characterized by available physico-chemical methods (1H, 13C NMR, MS/MS, HPLC) and tested in numerous cytokinin bioassays (e.g. senescence, Amaranthus, callus, receptor) routinely provided in our laboratory to evaluate appropriate biological
activity.
Acknowledgements: The work was supported by the grant of the Ministry of Education,
Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic No. MSM 6198959216.
References: 1. Davies, P.J. (2004) Plant Hormones, Biosynthesis, Signal Transduction,
Action! Kluwer Academic Publishers. Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
2. Hermanson G. et al. (1992) Immobilized Affinity Ligand Techniques. Academia Press.
San Diego, USA.
