kinetin

Kinetin (/'kaɪnɪtɪn/) is a cytokinin-like synthetic plant hormone that promotes cell division in plants. Kinetin was originally isolated by Carlos O. Miller and Skoog et al. 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.