Lecture 5

Plant hormones
and
Signal transduction

PLSC 452/552
1/23/14
Department of Plant Sciences
Neal Stewart Lab
 Brain teaser
• Little Johnny nails a sign 90 cm off the ground
to a tree outside of his clubhouse that says
“no girls allowed.” If the tree grows 12 cm
every year, at what height will the sign be
when Little Johnny returns as Big Johnny in 15
years?
 Overview

• Define “hormone” as a functional compound.

What is the function and importance of
hormones?
• Know the major plant hormones
• Understand real-world application of
hormones
• Importance of hormones for tissue culture:
introduction
 What is a hormone?
• Biochemical which regulates growth based on
biological and environmental influences
• Synonyms: Plant hormones, plant growth
regulators (PGRs), phytohormones
• Regulate growth and development
• Mobile throughout plant
• Environment and stress responsive
 Major plant hormones

• Auxin – Greek: auxein; to grow or increase

• Cytokinin – cytokinesis (cell division)
• Abscisic acid – abscission
• Jasmonic acid – found in jasmine oil
• Gibberellic acid – pathogen Gibberella
• Ethylene – chemical brother to ethanol
• Brassinosteroids – derived from Brassica spp.
 Finding plant hormones
Observational:
Darwin stumbles on auxin
– Noticed grass tips grow toward light
– With tip growth responded to light
– Without tip growth had no response
Mutation screening: (aka forward genetics)
– Dwarf plants are can be hormone deficient
ABRC teaching tools website
 General hormone biochemistry
• Present in all cells at various levels
• Classes of hormones work in signal cascades
– Hormone-receptor interactions
– Respond to a host of factors and biological needs
• Abiotic
– Water stress
– Light
– Nutrient deficiency
• Biotic
– Growth
– Development
– Herbivore stress
 Hormone biosynthesis
Made from four biosynthetic pathways:
– Terpenoids
• AMP + IPP (cytokinins)
• Carotenoid breakdown (abscisic acid)
• Diterpene (gibberellic acid)
• Triterpene (brassinosteroids)
– Fatty acids (jasmonic acid)
– Tryptophan (auxins)
– Methionine (ethylene)
EGG database:
ttp://www.genome.jp/kegg/
 Auxins
• Greek: auxein; to grow or increase
• Apical dominance growth
• Cell elongation
• Hormone level very important
2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=104205
Taiz and Zeiger. 2002. Plant Physiology, 3 rd Ed.
Auxin: Apical dominance

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/A/Auxin.html
 Cytokinin
• Cytokinesis (cell division)
• Accidently added degraded DNA to medium
• Organization and development of xylem tissue
• Response to light Kinetin

• Lateral growth of shoots

• Open stomata

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
 Application: cotton spraying
• Adding cytokinins to young cotton increase drought-
resistance
• Arizona – 31% US cotton, highest yield acre-1
Auxin and cytokinin ratio importance
• Auxin alone = Large cells (no division)
• Cytokinin alone = Cells have no change
• Auxin + Cytokinin = Normal cell growth and
division
• Auxin + >Cytokinin = Shoot growth
• >Auxin = Cytokinin = Root growth
 Auxin

Cytokinin

http://users.ugent.be/~p
debergh/pri/pri4ez04.jpg
 Abscisic acid (ABA)

• Originally implicated in leaf and fruit abscission

• Involved in leaf senescence
• Maintains seed dormancy (opposed to GA)
• Involved in stomata regulation (closes)
• Single hormone unit

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
http://www.rikenresearch.
riken.jp/eng/research/612
1
 Jasmonic acid
• First identified in jasmine oil
• Response to biotic stress
– Wounding induces JA biosynthesis
– Microbial and fungal invasion

• Plant growth effects similar to auxin

– Specialty growth structures

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
 Jasmonic acid: Plant-insect co-evolution
Tri-trophic interactions

Degenhardt (2009)
Plant Physiology
149:96-102
 Jasmonic acid: Pathogen response

http://park.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biotec-res-ctr/kampo/eng/research_plant.html
 Gibberellic acid
• Originally found in Gibberella (rice pathogen)
– Responsible for ‘foolish seedling’ phenomenon
– Uninhibited growth until breaking
• Involved in cell elongation
• Flowering and seed germination

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
 Modification of GA in rice

Miyako Ueguchi-Tanaka 2005 Nature 437, 693-698

Spraying GA for increased fruit yield
GA induces fruiting
in absence of seed

http://www.extension.org/pages/31607/using-plant-growth-regulators-to-
increase-the-size-of-table-grape-berries#.Ut9EYbROmM8
 Ethylene: the cell phone of PGRs
• A hydrocarbon gas
• Involved in fruit ripening, stress response
• Inhibition of growth in dark conditions
• Excess ethylene inhibits callus growth
 Conversational Plants?

• Ethylene production increases during stress

– Drought
– Heat

• Perceived by neighboring plants

• Unstressed plants induce stress pathways

 Brassinosteroids
• Stress responses
– Switchgrass suspension cells have minor amounts
of lignin (small amounts of H monolignols)
– Addition of brassinolide induces normal lignin
formation and composition
• Stem elongation Brassinolide

• Seed germination
• Pollen tube growth
• Cell differentiation control

http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
 Overview of hormone mutants Cytokinin
mutant

Brassinosteroid
mutant

Cytokinin
mutant
closer look

Ethylene
mutant
grown in dark

Abscisic acid
mutant

Bishopp A et al. Development 2006;133:1857-1869

 Hormones (PGR) pathways
• PGRs work in complex cascades to produce signals
– Synergistic
– Anatognistic

• Variety of actions in cell

– Gene transcription
– Protein degradation

http://chriscarterart.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/m
others-day-2/mikado-plant-watercolor-sketch-chris-
carter-050910/
Arabidopsis histidine kinase sensing and signaling; 2) A histidine
phosphotransferase protein nuclear translocation; 3) A response regulation
transcription activation; and 4) a negative feedback loop through cytokinin-
inducible ARR gene products.

http://molbio.mgh.harvard.edu/sheenweb/cytokinin_signaling.html
Introduction: the importance of manipulation
of hormones for tissue culture
• Auxins and cytokinins are very important
– Higher auxin induces root growth
– Equal ratio induces callus and cell enlargement
– Lower auxin induces shoot growth
• Gibberellic acid germinates difficult seeds
• Add brassinosteroids for cell wall induction
 Lecture summary
• Hormones are biochemicals that regulate
plant growth based on biological and
environmental cues
• Auxin and cytokinin are key for plant growth
• Abiotic and biotic stress response is regulated
by hormones
• Cell signaling is regulated by specific receptors
on cell membranes