Assignment

Subject
BOT-203

Submitted To

Ms. Sumera Jahan

Submitted By

Syeda Laraib Zahra 18371514-032

Degree

BS Zoology

Due Date

Monday , December 09 ,2019

Department of Zoology
Faculty of Sciences
University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus
Table of Contents

Photoperiodism: ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Significance: ............................................................................................................................................. 3
The Discovery: .............................................................................................................................................. 3
The Quality of Light: .................................................................................................................................... 3
The Pigment: ............................................................................................................................................. 4
The Photoperiod Mechanism: ....................................................................................................................... 4
In Short-day Plants:................................................................................................................................... 4
In Long-day Plants: ................................................................................................................................... 4
References:................................................................................................................................................ 5
Photoperiodism:
1. It is the biological measurement of the relative lengths of day and night.
2. It is the sum total of plant’s physiological responses according to the duration of light.
3. In photoperiodism, flowering and other developmental processes takes place in response to the day
length.

Significance:
It plays significant role in:

1. Flowering
2. Bud dormancy
3. Control of vegetative trait
4. Tuberization in plants
5. Bulb formation
6. Leaf fall in deciduous tree
7. Dark carbon fixation in CAM plants

The Discovery:
It was firstly discovered by WW Garner and H.A Allard, who were the students of US
Department of Agriculture, they studied the Maryland mammoth variety of tobacco plant.
In 1920, the studied that the Maryland mammoth was the plant that is affected by the amount of
duration of light after doing several experiments in light-tight boxes, where they could manipulate
the amount of light and dark. After this, they called this plant as “Short-day Plants”. Then, he also
worked with soybean, cosmos, ragweed, spinach, lettuce and raddish.

The Quality of Light:

The wavelength of light used is important:
1. Far red light:
It should have a wavelength larger than 700nm. It stimulates flowering in short-day
plants and inhibits the flowering in long-day plants.
2. Red light:
It should have a wavelength of 670-680 nm. It must inhibits the flowering in short-day
plants and initiates the flowering in long-day plants.
The Pigment:
The light in plant is absorbed by several chemical molecules, known as chemical receptors,
they initiates several chemical reactions, called “Signal-transduction”. There should be a pigment that
absorbs red light and far-red light, therefore, the pigment should be “Blue-green” and known as
“Phytochrome”.

The Photoperiod Mechanism:

Phytochrome exists in two versions which are inter-convertible:

1. Pr that absorbs red light

2. Pfr that absorbs far red light

In Short-day Plants:
1. Pfr is converted into Pr.
2. In short-day plants, the light period is less (8-10 hours), whereas, the dark period is long and
continuos (12-14 hours). If this dark period is interrupted even with a little exposure of red light,
no flowering will occur.
3. If the dark period is continuous and is prolonged, then the early flowering will initiates.
4. The inhibition of flowering with the exposure of red light will be maximum at the middle of the
dark period.
5. The interruption of light period into the dark period will inhibit the flowering in short-day plants.
6. The inhibition of flowering can be overcome by the exposure of the far red light into that dark
period.
7. Interruption of the dark period into the light period will have no effect on the inhibition of the
flowering.
Examples:
Maryland Mammoth variety of tobacco (Nicotina tabacum), Biloxi variety of Soybeans
(Glycine max), Cocklebur (Xanthium pennsylvanicum).

In Long-day Plants:
1. In long-day plants, Pr in converted into Pfr.
2. These plants have the short dark period ( 8-10 hours) and longer day light period (usually
14-16 hours).
3. In these type of plants, the light period is longer, continuous and critical.
 4. If the light period in long-day plants, is prolonged, then early flowering will be initiated in
the plant.
5. The interruption of dark period into the light will have no effect on the flowering, hence, it will
stimulates the flowering.
Example:
Hyoscyamus niger (Henbane), Spinacea (Spinach), Beta vulgaris (Sugar beet).

Day-neutral plants:

1. These plants don’t response in response to the duration of light.

2. They induce flowering when they reach a particular age of maturity.
3. These are the most common type of flowering in all types of plant flowerings.
4. These plants require the exposure of light ranging from 5 hours to 24 hours of continuous exposure.
Example:
Tomato, Cotton, Sunflower, Cucumber and certain varieties of peas and tobacco.

References:

1. Mauseth, James D. (2003). Botany : An Introduction to Plant Biology (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA:
Jones and Bartlett Learning. pp. 422–27. ISBN 978-0-7637-2134-3.
2. ^ Fankhauser, Christian (2001). "The Phytochromes, a Family of Red/Far-red Absorbing
Photoreceptors". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 276 (15): 11453–
11456. doi:10.1074/jbc.R100006200. ISSN 0021-9258.
3. ^ Casal, J.J. (2014). "Light perception and signalling by phytochrome A". Journal of
Experimental Botany. 65 (11). (11): 2835–2845. doi:10.1093/jxb/ert379.
4. ^ Lin, Chentao (2000). "Photoreceptors and Regulation of Flowering Time". Plant
Physiology. 123 (1): 39–50. doi:10.1104/pp.123.1.39. PMC 1539253. PMID 10806223.
5. ^ Chamovitz, Daniel (2013). What A Plant Knows. Scientific American. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-
374-28873-0.
6. ^ Lin, Chentao (2005). "The cryptochromes". Genome Biology. 6 (5): 220. doi:10.1186/gb-2005-
6-5-220. PMC 1175950. PMID 15892880.
7. ^ Mockler, Todd (2003). "Regulation of photoperiodic flowering by Arabidopsis
photoreceptors". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America. 100 (4): 2140–2145. doi:10.1073/pnas.0437826100. PMC 149972.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Capon, Brian (2005). Botany for Gardeners (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Timber
Publishing. pp. 148–51. ISBN 978-0-88192-655-2.
9. ^ Hamner, K.C.; Bonner, J. (1938). "Photoperiodism in relation to hormones as factors in floral
initiation and development". Botanical Gazette. 100 (2): 388–
431. doi:10.1086/334793. JSTOR 2471641.
10. ^ Hamner, K.C. (1940). "Interrelation of light and darkness in photoperiodic
induction". Botanical Gazette. 101 (3): 658–87. doi:10.1086/334903. JSTOR 2472399.