Plant Hormones

Plant Hormones

• Plant hormones can be divided into two

classes:
• Growth promoters: Auxins,
Gibberellins, Cytokinins
• Growth inhibitors: Ethylene gas,
Abscisic acid
 Growth promoters

• Hormones can promote plant growth in

two ways:
• Stimulating cell division in meristems
to produce new cells.
• Stimulating elongation in cells.
Auxins
 Auxin activity
Auxins stimulate genes in cells associated with plant growth.
 Auxin roles

• Auxins carry out multiple roles having

to do with plant growth including:
• Tropisms
• Apical dominance
• Growth of adventitious roots
• Fruit growth
 Tropisms

• Tropisms are the growth of a plant

toward or away from a stimulus,
including:
• Phototropism: in response to light
• Gravitropism: in response to gravity
• Thigmotropism: in response to touch
 Tropisms: cell elongation

• In general, tropisms
involve cell
elongation or
suppression of cell
elongation on one
side of a plant,
causing the plant to
grow in a particular
direction.
 Phototropism

• Look at the sprouts

in the bottom
picture and the
explanatory
diagram at the top.
Explain why the
sprouts are all
leaning in the same
direction.
 Gravitropism
• In this Impatiens
plant, shoots grow
upwards and roots
grow downwards in
response to gravity.

• On which side of the

shoot and root do you
think auxins are more
concentrated?
 Gravitropism in shoots
• In shoots, auxins
are more
concentrated on the
lower side of the
stem, causing the
cells there to
elongate.

• Why is this
gravitropism and
not phototropism?
 Gravitropism in roots
• In roots, however,
auxin concentration
on the lower side of
the root suppresses
cell elongation.

• The upper side of

the root continues
to grow, causing the
roots to bend
downward.
 Plastids and Gravitropism
How does a root “know” which way is down?
Plastids, particularly leucoplasts, in the root cap cell tend to settle on the
bottom side of the cell. This stimulates the release of auxins.
 Thigmotropism
• In some plants,
vining stems or
tendrils will grow
in response to
touch.

• Which side of the

tendril is
elongating? Where
might the auxin be?
(Remember, this is
the shoot system.)
 Apical dominance
• Auxins are released
from the shoot tip.
These stimulate cell
elongation in the stem,
but suppress the
lateral buds.

• Cytokinins, produced
in the roots, can
stimulate lateral buds
if the shoot tip is
removed.
 Adventitious roots

• Adventitious roots are

those growing out of
places where roots don’t
normally grow.

• Auxins stimulate root

growth on the end of a
houseplant cutting..
 Thinking question

• When people grow new plants from

cuttings, they often dip the end of the
cutting in rooting compound to
stimulate root growth.
• What hormone is in the compound?
• How does it work?
 Fruit growth
• Developing seeds produce
auxins that stimulate
growth of the plant ovary
into a fruit.

• Removal of seeds from a

strawberry prevents the
fruit from growing, but
add auxin and will grow.

• How could this be used in

commercial agriculture?
Gibberellins
 Foolish rice seedlings

• Gibberellins were
discovered when
Japanese scientists
were investigating
bakanae, or “foolish
rice seedling” disease,
that caused seedlings
to grow excessively
tall, then fall over.
Discovery of Gibberellins
• In 1898, Shotaro Hori suggested that the
disease was caused by a fungus that
infected the rice.
• Eiichi Kurosawa in 1926 was able isolate
secretions from the fungus. The
secretions caused the same symptoms
when applied to other rice plants.
• In 1934, Teijiro Yabuta isolated the active
substance and named it gibberellin.
Functions of Gibberellins

• Promotes cell elongation in the

internodes of plants.
• Stimulates growth of the ovary wall into
a fruit.
• Stimulates seed germination and release
of food reserves in seeds.
 Commercial Uses
• On the left are
ordinary green
grapes with seeds.
On the right is a
cluster of
Thompson seedless
grapes. These both
came from the same
variety of
grapevine. How can
this be?
 Thinking question

• You’re at the State Fair, looking at the

giant vegetable competition, and you
notice a super-tall sunflower entered by
your favorite biology professor. You
notice that it has the same number of
leaves as its competitors, just extra-long
internodes. Should you alert the judges?
Cytokinins
In search of a growth factor
• In the early 1950’s, Dr. Folke Skoog and Dr. Carlos
Miller were in search of a better medium in which to
grow plant tissues and to manipulate cells to grow
roots and shoots.
• After experimenting with coconut milk and yeast
extract, they found evidence that a derivative of a
nucleotide (DNA component) might be the factor in
these substances that stimulated cell growth.
• Miller, looking for a source of nucleotides, found an old
bottle of herring sperm DNA in the storeroom. When
he used it on plant tissue, he found terrific growth.
 Isolating the factor
• Miller ordered a new bottle of herring sperm DNA, but
the new sample didn’t cause cell division as the old one
had.
• After much work, Skoog and Miller isolated the one
factor that coconut milk, yeast extract, and old DNA had
in common, and that stimulated cell division. The
substance, which they named “kinetin,” was structurally
similar to the DNA base, adenine and appeared to be a
chemical derivative of adenine.
• Since the time of Miller and Skoog’s work, similar
molecules have been found, and grouped together under
the name of “cytokinins.”
Functions of Cytokinins

• Promote growth of lateral buds when

auxin concentrations are low.
• Promote cell division in meristems.
• Stimulate fruit and seed development.
• Delays senescence of plant parts.
 W
O
R
K
• You’re a plant scientist preparing a plant
tissue callus in a petri dish. You want to T
have lots of rapidly dividing, O
undifferentiated cells in the dish. What G
E
hormone will you use and why?
T
H
E
R
Ethylene Gas
 Gaseous discoveries
• In ancient China, people placed pears or
oranges in rooms with burning incense
to make them ripen faster.
• For centuries, people assumed heat or
light was responsible for fruit ripening.
In the 19th century, fruit ripening sheds
were built using gas or kerosene heaters.
When these were replaced with electric
heaters, fruit didn’t ripen as fast.
 “Illuminating gas”
• In the 1800’s, gas lighting was first
installed in cities. People noticed that
houseplants growing near gas light
fixtures grew abnormally. Cut flowers
aged and wilted quickly.
• Physiologist Dimitry Neljubow analyzed
natural gas and found that one
component, ethylene gas, was responsible
for the effects.
 Functions of Ethylene

• Released by fruits and causes the fruits

to ripen faster.
• Causes plant parts to age and die
(senescence).
• Inhibits stem elongation.
 W
• Which of these
O
methods will make R
your tomatoes K
ripen faster and
why? T
O
• Putting them on G
a sunny E
windowsill. T
H
• Putting them in a E
paper bag. R
Abscisic Acid
 In search of an inhibitor

• In separate studies in 1963, F.T. Addicott found a

substance that stimulated abscission of fruits in cotton,
and named it “abscisin.” P.F. Wareing found a
substance that promoted dormancy in sycamore tree
leaves and called it “dormin.”
• By 1967, both teams realized they were studying the
same substance. At a conference they decided to call
the substance abscisic acid.
Functions of Abscisic Acid

• Controls seed and bud dormancy.

• Inhibits gibberellins.
• Promotes senescence in plants.
 Thinking question

• You’ve bought a big bouquet of flowers

for your mother for Mother’s Day. You
want the flowers to last for a long time.
Would it be a good or bad idea to expose
the bouquet to:
• abscisic acid?
• ethylene gas?
Nastic Movements
 Nastic
movement in
the sensitive
plant
(Mimosa
pudica)
Hinge control in Venus Fly Trap - Nastic movement
 How it works

• Nastic movements are rapid, reversible

movements in a plant.
• Electrical potentials across cell
membranes, similar to those in our nerve
cells, signal plant cells at the base of the
Mimosa leaf to rapidly lose water. This
causes the leaf to droop.
 Movies

• Sensitive Plant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVU1YuDj
wd8

• Venus Fly Trap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIGVtKdg
wo&feature=related
 Other examples

• Sunflowers follow the sun during the

day.
• Leaves of many plants turn to follow the
sun.
 Day/Night length

• Some plants flower in response to the

length of periods of darkness.
• Spring-blooming flowers are long night
(short day) plants, while summer-
blooming flowers are short night (long
day) plants.
• Some plants are day-neutral.
 Action of phytochrome on flowering time.

Pfr to Pr switch is how plants “tell time.”

 W
O
• You’re trying to grow tomatoes and R
strawberries in a greenhouse. Tomatoes K
blossom and ripen in the summer.
Strawberries blossom and ripen in the spring. T
You set each plant in a chamber with lights set O
to the right day length. Your assistant comes in G
to clean up in the middle of the night and E
switches the lights on briefly. Which plants
T
will now fail to bloom: strawberries or
H
tomatoes?
E
R
 Plant Communication
• Plants communicate chemically.
• Injured plants send out chemical signals
that may
• signal other plants to prepare for an
attack.
• attract other insects that eat the insects
that are attacking the plant.