Evening star., 1947-11-03
Virginia Scientists Find
Regulators Of Growth
Bio-Chemical Substance Reported
Affecting Life Proportion
By Thomas K. Henry

The first known discovery Of growth rag
ulator '-biochemical substance some form Of
which theoretically exists in all living cells and
which Is basically responsible for the sfapes.
sizes and functions OF the living world-A-hss
just been announced at the University Of vir.
ginia.
growth regulator, for example, is respon.
sible for the fact that a mans thumb does not
grow out of proportion to the rest OF hts HAND;
that some cells are differentiated to form
fingers and others to form eyes.
Biologists long have known theoretically that
something of the sort must exist but they Rave
been unable to isolate any specific substance
Some have held that there really was no such
thing but that growth regulation was a f,lnc-
tion OF the arrangement Of genes units OF
heredity, within a cell.
Work Of Virginia Scientists.
The announcement Of DR.. Iysy r. Lewis,
University Of Virginia professor Of biology, and
Lucille Walton Danville, Va, high school
teacher. Is of finding a material injected into
witch hazel leaves by; the sting Of an apnd
which causes the cells which ordinarily would
become leaf to become a different-but per-
fectly orderly-form OF growth which might be
considered plant cancer. 1t is known as .
cone gall.
The significance Of this discovery In an eb-
scure field of botany is that 1t apparently opens
for the first time a door into one Of the two
or three greatest unsolved mysteries Of all life
The phenomenon presumably Is the same In .
toad, lion or a man, but the cause harder to
find. DR.. Lewis has an actual sample Of growth
regulator-a blueish substance in which, tiny
crystal forms are embedded--where 1t can be
placed under the microscope and In the test
tube. -
The particular aphid which secretes the sub
stance first appears In April and lives through
most of the summer The females OF the first
generation Immediately start stingng the leaf.
The dividing cells which ordinarily would build
up a normal witch hazel leaf-which the aphid,
highly specialized feeder, cannot eat--change
into the plant tumor tissue on which 1t can
subsist. The change, Dr. Lewis reports, starts
Immediately. r-.-,
New Cells Built Up.
The insect builds up walls of the new kind OF
cells around herself Within these walls she
remains all her life, continually singing to pro-
duce new growth. Meanwhile she lis laying
eggs and producing new broods of aphids. None
Of the succeeding generations, however. has the
power to inject the mysterious substance in
stings. 1t Is one of the queerest completes in
the economy of nature. The discovery came.
Dr. Lewis said after four years Of Investigation
Of the causes of plant tumors. r,..
Normally plant growth regulators would be
produced in the cells of the individual. Here It
is introduced from the outside, pointing the
possibility that man someday may be able to
influence the size and shape OF many forms Of
life by injections of materials made in the lab
oratory, just as the insect is able to transform
one form of life by something manufactured in
her body.
The discovery does not necessarily mean that
all growth regulators are chemical In nature. IT
clearly establishes, however, that one OF them
is. Many others probably are. :.
Search for such regulators has been in prog
ress for the past 80 years. DR.. Lewis Is aware
of no previous claim to a discovery OF a specific
substance and the American Genetics Associa-
ton has no records of such