Photoautotrophic Culture of Undifferentiated Cells and Shoot-Forming Cultures of Digitalis purpurea L.

Undifferentiated cells and shoot-forming cultures of Digitalispurpurea L. were grown photoautotrophically under 1% CO₂. During3 weeks of culture, the undifferentiated cells multiplied 3-foldand the shoot-forming cultures 2-fold on a fresh weight basis.The chlorophyll content, ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylaseactivity, Hill reaction activity of the isolated chloroplastsand photosynthetic O₂ evolution of the photoautotrophicallygrown cultures were somewhat higher than the values of the correspondingphotomixotrophic cultures. The digitoxin contents, however,were not improved by photoautotrophic culture. (Received November 9, 1983; Accepted June 11, 1984)