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Science 6 May 1966:
Vol. 152. no. 3723, pp. 771 - 773
DOI: 10.1126/science.152.3723.771
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Articles

Osmotic Pressure Influence in Germination Tests for Antibiosis

Roger C. Anderson 1 and Orie L. Loucks 1

1 Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison

A common test for the presence of toxic organic substances in plant tissues, and therefore of the potential role of antibiosis (specifically allelopathy) in native plant cozmmunities, has been to apply a water extract of the tissues in germination tests of cultivated annuals. The observed osmotic pressure of the extracts can be high, and sucrose solutions of similar osmotic pressure result in a depression of germnination and early development. Thus in the aforementioned type of test, extracts must be diluted to an osmotic pressure no greater than 0.5 atmopheres.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)