[Effect of prolonged glucidic starvation on the contents of starch and tannins of Blechnum brasiliense L. gametophytes].

Some Blechnum brasiliense gametophytes have been maintained in darkness, in a purely mineral medium, for the purpose of investigating the effect of prolonged glucidic starving on the amount of tannins and starch that they contain. During the first two months the tannin contents undergoes a fast decrease. The starch variations are different : a transitory increase simultaneous with the fall in tannin; a decrease after the disappearance of 3/4 of the tannin contents; and lastly, a new amylogenese which precedes the prothallus necrosis. It seems that the gametophytes, in order to survive, degrade first their tannoidic reserves, and they utilize the starch that they contain only with difficulty. This behaviour can be explained by the distribution of the two metabolites; by the acid pH of the medium, which is not very propitious to the phosphorylases activity and lastly by the presence of chlorogenic acids, which are inhibitors of those enzymes.