Plant Adaptations

Chemical, Physical, and Behavioral

 Plant Adaptations
• Internal molecular signals in plants include
tropisms and photoperiodism.
• Tropism: a growth response that results in the
curvature of a whole plant toward or away
from stimuli due to different rates of cell
elongation
• Tropisms include: phototropism, gravitropism
(geotropism), and thigmotropism
 Phototropism
• Phototropism: plant
response to light
• Stems and leaves
exhibit positive (toward)
phototropism
• Roots exhibit negative
(away) from light
 Gravitropism (Geotropism)
• Gravitropism
(geotropism): plant
response to gravity
• Stems and leaves:
exhibit negative
gravitropism
• Roots: exhibit positive
gravitropism
 Thigmotropism
• Thigmotropism: plant
response to touch
• Ex. Climbing vines;
rapid leaf movements
• Video link:
• https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=EUUTaiT-b
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 Plant Responses to Stress
• Drought: plants control water loss by
reducing the rate of transpiration by closing
stomata
• Because soil usually dries from the surface
down, drought stimulates deeper root growth
to maximize exposure to soil water
 Plant Responses to Stress
• Flooding: overwatered plants may suffocate
because the soil lacks the air spaces that provide
oxygen for cellular respiration in the roots
• Some plants are adapted to wet habitats; they
have aerial roots that provide access to oxygen
• How do non-aquatic plants cope? Oxygen
deprivation triggers apoptosis of some cells in the
root, creating air tubes that function as “snorkels”,
providing oxygen to the submerged roots.
 Plant Responses to Stress
• Salt Stress: excess NaCl threatens plants for two
reasons: 1) roots will lose water; 2) NaCl and certain
other ions are toxic to plants in high concentrations
• Response: production of compatible solutes that keep
the water potential of cells more negative than that of
the soil solution.
• However: most plants cannot survive salt stress for
long
• The exceptions are the halophytes: salt-tolerant plants
with salt glands that pump salts out of the leaf.
 Plant Responses to Stress
• Heat stress: can denature • Cold Stress: can
enzymes decrease the fluidity of
• Transpiration is the cell membrane
evaporative cooling for • Plants increase the
the plant; but could lead
proportion of
to severe water loss
unsaturated fatty acids
• Above 40C, plants produce
in the membrane to
heat-shock proteins that
keep the membranes
protect other proteins
from denaturing. fluid when
temperatures drop.
Plant Defenses Against Herbivores
• Physical defenses include thorns.
• Chemical defenses include distasteful or toxic
compounds.
• Some plants recruit predatory animals to help
defend the plant against specific herbivores.
Example: parasitoid wasps inject their eggs into
caterpillars feeding on the plants. The plants
attracted the wasps by releasing compounds
from the damaged leaf.
 Photoperiodism
• Photoperiodism: a physiological response to
daylength
• Ex. Flowering in plants
• Photoperiodic plants are classified as long-day
plants or short-day plants. This is actually
regulated by the hours of darkness. This is
called their critical night length.
 Photoperiodic Plants
• Short-day plants: • Long-day plants: flower
require a light period when days are 14 hours
shorter than 14 hours or longer.
to flower • Ex. Spinach, radish,
• Ex. Chrysanthemums, lettuce, iris, and many
poinsettias, and some cereal crops.
soybean varieties. • Generally flower in late
• These generally flower spring or early summer
in late summer, fall, or
winter.
 Other Plants…
• Day-neutral plants: flower when they reach a
certain stage of maturity, regardless of day
length at the time.
• Ex. Tomatoes, rice, dandelions