Intravacuolar Spherical Bodies in Polygonum cuspidatum

The vacuoles in the epidermal cells of light-grown seedlingsof Polygonum cuspidatum were found to contain intensely pigmentedspherical bodies (anthocyanoplasts). Dark-grown seedlings containedsimilar spherical bodies that were unpigmented. The unpigmentedspherical bodies accumulated anthocyanin and turned into anthocyanoplastswhen dark-grown seedlings were irradiated. The unpigmented sphericalbodies of dark-grown seedlings were heavily stained upon treatmentof seedlings with neutral red. The absorption spectra of sphericalbodies and vacuoles showed that the contents of the sphericalbody were different from those of the vacuole. The sphericalbody was stable in darkness or at low temperature but was unstableat 25°C in the light. There was no correlation between theamount of anthocyanin and the percentage of cells that containedspherical bodies, suggesting that, in P. cuspidatum, the sphericalbody is not the main site of anthocyanin synthesis. ²Present address: Department of Applied Biology, Faculty ofTextile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Ueda, 386Japan