Kinetin

Not to be confused with Kinesin.
Kinetin
Names
IUPAC name
N6-furfuryladenine
Identifiers
3D model (JSmol)
ChEBI
ChEMBL
ChemSpider
DrugBank
ECHA InfoCard 100.007.622 Edit this at Wikidata
EC Number
  • 208-382-2
KEGG
RTECS number
  • AU6270000
UNII
  • InChI=1S/C10H9N5O/c1-2-7(16-3-1)4-11-9-8-10(13-5-12-8)15-6-14-9/h1-3,5-6H,4H2,(H2,11,12,13,14,15) ☒N
    Key: QANMHLXAZMSUEX-UHFFFAOYSA-N ☒N
  • C(Nc1ncnc2nc[nH]c12)c1ccco1
Properties
C10H9N5O
Molar mass 215.216 g·mol−1
Appearance Off-white powder
Melting point 269–271 °C (516–520 °F; 542–544 K) (decomposes)
Structure
cubic
Related compounds
Related
cytokinin
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Kinetin (/'kaɪnɪtɪn/) is a cytokinin-like synthetic plant hormone that promotes cell division in plants.[1] Kinetin was originally isolated by Carlos O. Miller[2] and Skoog et al.[3] as a compound from autoclaved herring sperm DNA that had cell division-promoting activity. It was given the name kinetin because of its ability to induce cell division, provided that auxin was present in the medium. Kinetin is often used in plant tissue culture to induce callus formation (in conjunction with auxin) and regenerate shoot tissues from callus (with lower auxin concentration).

For a long time, it was believed that kinetin was an artifact produced from the deoxyadenosine residues in DNA, which degraded when standing for long periods or when heated during the isolation procedure. Therefore, it was thought that kinetin does not occur naturally, but since 1996, it has been shown by several researchers that kinetin exists naturally in the DNA of cells of almost all organisms tested so far, including humans and various plants. The mechanism of production of kinetin in DNA is thought to be via the production of furfural — an oxidative damage product of deoxyribose sugar in DNA — and its quenching by the adenine base's converting it into N6-furfuryladenine, kinetin.

Kinetin is also widely used in producing new plants from tissue cultures.

  1. ^ "Kinetin - Plant Growth Regulators | CliniSciences". www.clinisciences.com. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  2. ^ "Carlos Miller". Department of Biology, Indiana University. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. ^ Amasino, R. (2005). "1955: Kinetin Arrives. The 50th Anniversary of a New Plant Hormone". Plant Physiology. 138 (3): 1177–1184. doi:10.1104/pp.104.900160. PMC 1176392. PMID 16009993.