Role of Plant Growth

Regulators in
Plant Disease Development
 Hormones
 plant produced natural compounds that inhibit or promote plant
growth

 Major classes of plant growth regulators (hormones) are:

1. Auxins
2. Gibberellins
3. Cytokinins
4. Abscisic acid
5. Ethylene
Auxin

s promoting chemicals
Growth

 Promote cell division and cell elongation

 Primary plant auxin - indoleacetic acid (IAA)

 Common synthetic forms - indolebutyric acid (IBA) and
naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA)
 Useful in phototropism, geotropism, apical dominance, and root
formation
Gibberellin
s
 Also known as Gibberellic acid or GA

 Growth promoting chemicals

 Stimulate stem growth through cell elongation and cell division

 Commercial supplies obtained from the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi

Cytokinin
s
 Promote cell division and delay leaf aging

 Used as a growth promoter in tissue culture

 Slows the process of senescence (biological aging) by preventing

the breakdown of chlorophyll in leaves
 Abscisic acid
(ABA)
 Only natural plant growth inhibitor

 Growth inhibitor that closes the stomates of plants under water

stress

 Counteracts the effects of auxins and gibberellins

 Cycocel and B-Nine are two synthetic ABA type growth inhibitors
commonly used
Ethylen
e
 Gas that forms in tissue undergoing stress

 Important in the fruit-ripening process and early petal drop of

flowers
 Auxins

 Plant infection by various pathogens & nematodes to enhance auxin

levels - some pathogens lower the auxin level of the host.
 Some of the pathogens

 not only increases levels of IAA in their hosts, but produces IAA.

 In some diseases-increased levels of IAA due to the decreased

degradation of IAA through the inhibition of IAA oxidase,

 e.g. in corn smut and stem rust of wheat,

 Clubroot ; Plasmodiophora brassicae

 Eg. clubroot of cabbage
(Plasmodiophora brassicae)
 A. tumefaciens - crown gall and leafy gall of
sweet pea
 Corn smut (Ustilago maydis),

 Cedar apple rust (Gymnosporangium Juniperi-

virginianae),
Panama wilt of banana (Fusarium
oxysporum f.sp.cubense)
 The root knot nematode
(Meloidogyne sp.),
 (A)

(B)

(A) External and cross-sectional view of crown gall on a rose stem caused
by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. (B) Schematic
representation of the structure of Ti plasmid of the bacterium and of the
transfer, integration, and expression of T-DNA in an infected plant that
results in the production of crown gall tumors.
 Gibberellins
 Gibberellins - constituents of green plants and are also produced by
several microorganisms.
 The best-known gibberellin : gibberellic acid.

 Gibberellins seem to activate genes that have been previously

“turned off.”
 Gibberellins first isolated from Gibberella fujikuroi, the cause of the
foolish seedling disease of rice or bakanae
 Cytokinins
 Cytokinins are necessary for cell growth and differentiation.

 they inhibit the breakdown of proteins and nucleic acids-inhibition of

senescence,
 they have the capacity to direct the flow of amino acids and other

nutrients through the plant toward the point of high cytokinin

concentration.
 Cytokinins occur in very small concentrations in green plants, in

seeds, and in the sap stream.

 Several cytokinins, e.g., zeatin and isopentenyl adenosine (IPA),

isolated from plants.

 Cytokinins
 Cytokinin activity increases in club root galls, crown galls, smut and
rust galls, and in rust-infected leaves.

 A cytokinin is partly responsible for several bacterial galls of plants,

 e.g. “leafy” gall disease of sweet pea caused by the bacterium

Rhodococcus (Corynebacterium) fascians, and

 the witches’ broom diseases caused by fungi and mollicutes.
 Ethylene
 Produced naturally by plants,
 Ethylene exerts a variety of effects on plants, including chlorosis, leaf
abscission, epinasty, stimulation of adventitious roots, and fruit ripening.
 Ethylene also causes increased permeability of cell membranes, which
is a common effect of infections.
 In the fruit of banana infected with Ralstonia solanacearum, the
ethylene content increases proportionately with the (premature)
yellowing of the fruit, whereas no ethylene can be detected in
healthy fruits.
 In Verticillium wilt of tomato, the presence of ethylene at the time of
infection inhibits disease development, whereas the presence of
ethylene after infection has been established enhances Verticillium
wilt development.