Biology
small peptide signaling molecule that
Chapter 3 - Lesson 2: Plant Defense Responses
Plants cannot run away from enemies and hazards
given that they are immobile.
Plant defense mechanisms can be grouped into
physical defenses and chemical defenses.
Chemical Defenses
Physical Defenses
 The first line of defense for plants is the
presence of a dermal covering made up of
epidermal tissues.
 Most of these epidermal tissues secrete a
waxy substance that are in the form of cutin
or cuticle, both of which are composed of
hydrophobic lipids.
 Trichomes, barks, spines, and thorns also
help in warding off attacks by enemies.
 Some invaders can penetrate the dermal
covering of plants.
 The entry of pathogens may induce plant
cells to divide in the damaged areas, thus,
producing tumorous outgrowth.
 Some parasitic nematodes or worms use
sharp mouths parts to penetrate the plant.
 There are some bacteria and fungi that are
beneficial to plants.
 Rhizobium – a nitrogen fixing bacterium
 Rhizobacterium, on the other hand, which
lives around roots of plants, benefit from
root saps or exudates. In turn, these
bacteria provide substances such as
hormones needed for plant growth.
 Azospirillium – also provide plant growth
hormones like gibberellic acid
 Plants also show systematic responses to
Chapter 5 - Lesson 1: Plant Hormones
invaders
Plant Hormones and Their Functions
 Wounds, for example, trigger the release of
travels through the plant body to initiate
production of proteinase inhibitor, an
amino acid peptide.
 Some plants are famous for their toxins
which kill their enemies.
 The cyanide-containing compounds are
called cyanogenic glycosides that break
down into cyanide when ingested.
 Some plants produce other toxins that
make herbivores ill. Others repel them with
their strong odors and flavors.
 Ricin, an alkaloid found in castor beans,
Ricinus communis, is six times more lethal
than cyanide and is twice as lethal as the
venom of cobra
 Plants can also contain other secondary
metabolites that may affect herbivores,
including humans.
 Alkaloids found in plants such as caffeine,
cocaine, nicotine, and morphine can affect
cellular processes.
 Plant oils in high concentrations can also be
toxic upon ingestion.
 Why then are plants not poisoned by the
toxins that they produce?
 The secondary metabolites are enclosed in
membrane-bound organelles which are
separated from the rest of the cytoplasm.
 Plants can also poison other plants.
 This strategy, which is called allelopathy,
minimizes shading and overcrowding
among plants.
Glands- specific sites where hormones are
produced.
Seven major kinds of plant hormones:
• auxin, cytokinin, gibberelic acid, abscisic acid,
ethylene, brassinosteroids, and oligasaccharines
1. Auxin
- also known as growth hormone
- Charles Darwin - conducted a simple experiment
that explained why plants bend toward the source
of light.
- He hypothesized that when plants are illuminated
from one side, they tend to bend towardthe source
of light in response to a certain substance
transmitted from the tip downward to the area of
bending.
- Frits Went - Dutch plant physiologist, pursued the
experiment led to the discovery of the hormone,
auxin.
Effects of Auxin
• Auxins help enhance growth and elongation of
plants.
Winslow Briggs - according to an experiment
conducted by him, it was shown that in the
presence of light, auxins migrate from the lighted
side shoot tips to the dark side and down the stem.
• They play a role in fruit development
• They inhibit abcission and promote flowering and
fruiting in some plants.
• Auxins induce the formation of roots in stem
cuttings. They inhibit the growth of lateral buds in
plants; however, they also promote the formation
of lateral roots.
2. Cytokinin
- Gottlieb Harbelandt - Austrian botanist who
discovered cytokinin
- Stimulates cell division and differentiation
- Mostly produced along the tips of the roots in
plants
- Developing fruits are also the site where
cytokinins are synthesized
- Cytokinins stimulate the formation of lateral roots
- Inhibit the formation of lateral roots
3. Gibberellic Acid
- Foolish seedling disease - a japanese plant
pathologist invested this disease in 1920 and found
out that the unusual growth exhibited by rice
plants were due to gibberellic acid (GA)
- It is synthesized by the apical part of stems and
roots.
- It is important in stem elongation.
- It restores normal growth and development of
dwarf mutant plants.
- GA is important in the production of I-amylase
and other hydrolytic enzymes
- It can hasten seed germination by substituting the
effects of cold or light requirements.
- Synthetic GA could be used to increase spaces
between the flowers of grapes
- In some plants, they also function as pheromones,
particularly in ferns.
4. Abscisic Acid
- Abscisic acid is a hormone that is synthesized
mainly in mature fruits, root caps, and green
leaves.
- It induces the formation of winter buds or buds
that remain dormant throughout the winter
season.
- It may also suppress growth and elongation of
buds.
- They also play a role in seed dormancy.
- Abscisic acid also plays a role in the opening and
closing of the stomata
5. Ethylene
- This plant hormone induces fruit ripening and can
defend the plant from attacks.
- Ethylene is also known to inhibit stem and root
elongation.
- It plays a role in fruit development similar to
auxin.
- It may also aid the breaking down a complex
sugars to glucose, and of chlorophyll.
6. Brassinosteroids
- These plant hormones were first discovered in
brassica.
- They are similar to animal hormones such as
cortisol, testosterone, and estradiol, which are
steroid hormones.
- Their effects include cell division, elongation,
bending, and delayed senescence, among other
effects.
7. Oligosaccharins
- Oligosaccharins are oligosaccharides with
hormone-like functions.
- They are abundant in the cell wall of plants.
- Signal defense responses of plants.
Chapter 5 - Lesson 2: The Sensory System of Plants
Stimulus – defined as any external or internal
changes in the environment that causes a response
 In plants, a stimulus causes a sensitive cell
to produce a particular hormone, which
travels relatively slow through the phloem
to reach responsive tissues.
 Plants may respond to the following
environmental factors:
o Light
o Gravity
o Mechanical Stimuli
o Water
o Temperature
Plant responses to Light
 Light influences many other physiological
processes in plants, such as seed
germination, flowering, and other critical
developmental processes.
 It can trigger photomorphogenesis, a term
used for non-directional development
responses of plants to light.
 It can result in changes in form or flowering
in some plants.
 It can also trigger phototropism, which is a
directional plant growth response.
 Phytochrome, a pigment-containing
protein, is present in plants, as well as in
green algae. It exists in two interconvertible
forms: pr (phytochrome red), which absorbs
far red light rays at 660 nm and pfr
(phytochrome far red), which absorbs far
red light rays at 730 nm. Pr is inactive and is
converted to pfr, the active form when red
photons of light are available.
 Several growth responses are attributed to
phytochrome.
 Some of these responses are: seed
germination, shoot elongation, and
detection of spacing in plants
o Phototropism is an example of a
directional response due to to a
directional stimulus like light. This
includes the bending of young stems
and other plant parts toward the
source of light, particularly the blue
wavelength.
Plant responses to Gravity
 This response of plants to gravitational
force is called gravtitropism.
 A plant’s shoot shows negative gravitropic
response, its root shows positive gravitropic
response.
Plants responses to Mechanical Stimuli • Open circulatory system - the circulating fluid or
hemolymph does not pass through enclosed tubes;
 Thigmotropism is a directional growth
instead, it is pumped by the heart to a network of
response of a plant or a plant part in
channels and cavities (homocoels) throughout the
response to a contact with an object like
body.
fence, wire, plant or animal.
 Thigmonasty is shown in the response of - It is also through this network of channels and
makahiya (Mimosa pudica) to touch. When cavities where gas exchange takes place.
touched, there are changes that happen in
Ex: insects and other arthropods
the turgor pressure at the base of each
pulvinus cell. • Closed circulatory system - the blood or
circulating fluid passes within blood vessels that
Plant responses to Water and Temperature
transport blood away from and back to the heart.
 Seed dormancy is an adaptive measure in
Earthworms - example of invertebrates with a
plants when environmental conditions are
closed type of circulation.
not favorable.
 The process by which leaves are shed is
called abscission. Shedding of leaves help
Circulatory system - supplies gases, nutrients, and
plants conserve water and energy.
hormones to the different parts of the body and
 After a leaf fall, a protective covering seals
collects metabolic wastes for acid-base balance and
the scar to prevent water loss and to
immunologic reactions.
prevent the invasion of parasites inside the
leaves. - also indispensable in regulating homeostatic
reactions of the body.
Chapter 3 - Lesson 1: Animal Defense Responses
Four components of circulatory system: heart,
Transport in organisms- essential in moving and
blood, blood vessels, and valves
delivering particles, such as fluid and nutrients to
the different parts of the body.
Heart

Transport in Simple Animals
• Sponges - water passes through a series of
chambers, spongocoel, the central cavity, where
enough gas exchange happens directly with the
cells.
• Cnidarians - such as the hydra, each cell is
directly in contact with the external environment
or the gastrovascular activity since the body is only
one-cell thick.
• Roundworms- are pseudocoelomates, body fluid
is used for circulation.
- muscular organ that pumps blood to all the parts
of the body.
- in the average life span of a person, the heart
beats around 2.5 billion times without interruption
- for every minute, a normal adult heart beats
around 72 times and pumps around 5.5 liters of
blood
- the heart can beat three times as fast as the
normal rate during a strenuous exercise or when
you get over excited, e.g., about 180 to 195 beats
per minute.

Two main types of circulation:

- composed of cardiac muscle - an involuntary,
striated type of muscle, with associated nervous
and connective tissues.
- an adult heart is about the size of a fist
- it has its own cavity, the peridarial cavity -
covered by the pericardium
- septum - divides the heart into two sides.
- right side - receives the deoxygenated blood
collected from the different parts of the body
- left side - receives oxygenated blood from the
lungs.
Each side of the heart into:
- atria - upper chamber
- ventricles - lower chamber
- atrio-ventricular - one way valves that are located
between the upper and the lower chambers
Flow of blood to the heart:
Right Side of the heart
1. Non-oxygenated blood, which comes from the
different parts of the body enters the superior and
inferior venae cavae and fill the right atrium
2. This causes the tricuspid valve, found between
the right atrium and right ventricle, to open
bringing blood to the right ventricle. This valve
closes when blood reaches the right ventricle to
prevent regurgitation.
4. From the right ventricle, blood is pumped into
the pulmonary arteries, and then flows to the
capillaries of the air sacs in the lungs. Here, blood
gives off carbon dioxide and some water and takes
in oxygen.
Left Side of the heart
5. Once oxygenated, the blood flows to the
pulmonary veins, into the left atrium
6. With pressure buildup, the mitral valve, which is
located between the left atrium and left ventricle,
opens and oxygenated blood is pumped into left
ventricle
7. Again, blood fills up this chamber creating an
increase in pressure which initiates the opening of
the aortic valve
“lubb dubb” - a sound that you hear using a
stethoscope is the sound produced by the heart
during contraction and relaxation.
“lubb” - a sound caused by the closing of the
atrioventricular (AV) valves during ventricular
contraction, forcing blood to the sinoventricular
(SV) valves.
“dubb” - a sound caused by the snapping sound of
the SV valves as blood moves from the ventricles to
the astria.
Systematic circulation- it begins when oxygenated
blood is delivered from the aorta to the different
parts of the body.
Blood
- is the internal circulating medium of the human
body.
- main function of blood is to carry nutrients and
oxygen to the cells of the body and carry away
carbon dioxide and nitrogenous waste from body
cells.
- consists of 55% plasma, the liquid part, and 45%
blood cells or formed elements.
Formed elements:
- red blood cells (erythrocytes) - which transport
oxygen and carbon dioxide
- white blood cells (leucocytes) - which function for
defense and immunity
- blood platelets (thrombocytes) - essential in
blood clotting
- Plasma - composed of water, proteins,
electrolytes, and other substances.
- Proteins - made up of fibrinogen, globulin, and
albumin while the rest is composed of nutrients,
waste products, gases, and hormones.
Blood Vessels
- serve as “highways” through which blood is
circulated in the body.
- three types of blood vessels: arteries, veins, and
capillaries.
- Arteries - are thick-walled vessels which allow the
passage of oxygenated blood, except the
pulmonary artery.
- Aorta - largest artery in the body, the only artery
that leads out of the left ventricle.
- Veins - are thin-walled vessels compared to
arteries, carry non-oxygenated blood towards the
heart, except for the pulmonary vein.
- Two largest veins in the body: the superior and
inferior venae cavae.
- Capillaries - The abundant microscopic blood
vessels that carry blood throughout the tissues and
organs, connecting the small veins and arteries
- are very thin (made up of only one layer of cells)
blood vessels, serve as sites through which
materials between the blood and cells are
exchanged
- thinnest blood vessels
- also supplies the brain with oxygen which keeps a
person conscious
Valves
- flaps of tissues that prevent the backward flow or
regurgitation of blood.
- the closure of the calves create the heart sounds
heard during auscultation, a medical term for the
act of listening to internal sound of the body that
usually uses a stethoscope.
- the heart valves are the bicuspid, tricuspid, and
aortic valves
Patterns of Circulation
William Harvey - first showed that the heart and
blood vessels form a continuous, closed type of
circulation.
- blood circulation can be divided into two:
pulmonary circulation and systematic circulation
- pulmonary circulation - movement of blood from
the heart to the lungs, and back to the heart.
- systemic circulation - follows pulmonary
circulation. Once blood is in the aorta of the heart,
it will move out of the heart to be circulated to all
parts of the body and other subsystems.
- coronary circulation - this subsystem supplies
blood to the heart itself.
- heart attack or myocardial infarction - a vessel
from the heart is blocked
- renal circulation - another subsystem that moves
blood through the kidneys and back to the heart.