The effect of L-cysteine on presoaked barley seeds treated with methyl methanesulfonate

Summary Experiments were performed to analyse the effect of L-cysteine on barley seeds treated with methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) at a critical stage of the cellular cycle. Contrary to expectation, L-cysteine did not protect the barley seeds against MMS damage except for a slight protection at high doses (0.5, 0.7%).Acknowledgments. The author is thankful to Dr K. Kartha, Prairie Regional Laboratory, National Research Council of Canada, Saskatoon, Canada, and Dr D. Lorence, Washington University, St. Louis, for linguistic revision of the paper.