RESEARCH REPORTS                                                             TGC REPORT 52, 2002 ______________________________________________________________________                             ones. This evidence supports the idea about more favorable relationship between water use and growth capacity of the iaglu transgenic tomato plants. Recently  a  tryptophan  racemase  was  found  in  wheat  leaves  (Rekoslavskaya  et al.1999) that was activated during drought and osmotic stresses. As a result the amino acid D-tryptophan appeared as if it was used for IAA biosynthesis as an additional and direct precursor source during period of recovery after drought. Preliminary studies of the  tryptophan  racemase  activity  were  carried  out  in  excised  tomato  leaves.  In  turgid control  tomato  leaves  the  activity  was  lower  than  in  transgenic.  Artificially  wilting  the leaves, placing on 0.5M mannitol solution, the activity of tryptophan racemase increased in leaves of transgenic plants and diminished in control leaves. As a whole the insertion of iaglu gene in tomato plants seems to have effects useful in tomato cultivation and productivity. Literature Cited Rekoslavskaya N. I., Yurjeva O. V., Salyaev R. K., Mapelli S., Kopytina T. V., 1999. Bulgar. J. Plant Physiol. 25: 39-49. 20

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