Term Definition

Meristems Allow plants to continue to produce more roots, leaves and stems throughout
their life

Photo/Geo tropism
Shoots: Positive phototropism, Negative geotropism
Roots: Negative phototropism, Positive Geotropism
Auxins shift to the darker side (Photo)
Auxins shift towards gravity (Geo)

Explain the role of auxin in phototropism

- Auxin is a plant hormone
- Produced by the shoot tip
- Causes transport of hydrogen ions from cytoplasm wall
- H+ pumping breaks bonds between cell wall fibres
- Makes cell walls flexible
- Auxins make cells grow
- Gene expression also altered by auxin to promote cell growth
- Positive phototropism is growth towards light
- Shoot tip senses direction of brightest light
- Auxin moved to side of stem with least light
- Causes cells on dark side to elongate

Micro propagation
- Specific plant tissue (undifferentiated shoot apex) is selected from a stock plant and sterilised
- Tissue sample is grown on a sterile nutrient agar gel
- Explant is treated with growth hormones to stimulate shoot and root development
- Growing shoots can be continuously divided and separated to form new samples
- Once developed, cloned plant can be transferred to soil
Advantages
- New varieties can be bulked up much more quickly than by previous methods of propagation
- Virus free strains of existing varieties can be produced
- Large numbers of rare plants