CLASS XII

UGHSS
2073
 What is plant hormone?

Any of various hormones produced by plants that control or regulate

germination, growth, metabolism, or other physiological activities.
or
Plant hormones (also known as phytohormones) are chemicals that
regulate plant growth.
or
An organic compound, naturally produced by the plants that can affect
growth and other functions remote from its place of origin and active in
very small amount.
or
Plant growth regulators are organic compounds other than nutrients
that in small amount promote, inhibit, or otherwise modify a
physiological process in plants.

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Plant hormones and their affects in plant life cycle

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Plants, like animals, respond to stimuli in their environment as a
safety measure to ensure their survival. Most plants respond more
slowly than animals by growing either towards or away from
stimuli.

This sort of response is called tropism and it is brought about by

hormones, which are involved in the control of many aspects of
plant growth and development.

Different plant hormones interact with one another to bring about

the necessary responses.

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 AUXIN (Indole-3-acetic acid) IAA

It is the most abundant

and the basic auxin
natively occurring and
functioning in plants. It
generates the majority of
auxin effects in intact
plants, and is the most
potent native auxin.
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In 1881, Charles Darwin and his son Francis performed
experiments on coleoptile, (a sheath protecting a young shoot tip
in a grass or cereal).

• They exposed the coleoptile to light from a unidirectional source

• it bend towards the light
• covered coleoptiles with a light-impermeable opaque cap
• the Darwins discovered that light is detected by the coleoptile
tip, but that bending occurs in the hypocotyl.

However the seedlings showed no signs of development towards

light if the tip was covered with an opaque cap, or if the tip was
removed.

The Darwins concluded that the tip of the coleoptile was

responsible for sensing light, and proposed that a messenger is
transmitted in a downward direction from the tip of the coleoptile,
causing it to bend. MD
Darwin’s famous experiment

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In 1913, Danish scientist Peter Boysen-Jensen demonstrated
that the signal was not transfixed but mobile.

He separated the tip from the remainder of the coleoptile by a

cube of gelatine which prevented cellular contact, but allowed
chemicals to pass through.

The seedlings responded normally bending towards the light.

However, when the tip was separated by an impermeable
substance, there was no curvature of the stem.

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 Frits Warmolt Went
In 1928, the Dutch botanist showed that a
chemical messenger diffuses downward from coleoptile tips. He was able to
identify how a growth promoting chemical causes a coleoptile to grow towards
light.

Went cut the tips of the coleoptiles and placed them in the dark, putting a few
tips on agar blocks that he predicted would absorb the growth-promoting
chemical.
• On control coleoptiles, he placed a block that lacked the chemical.
• On others, he placed blocks containing the chemical, either centred on top of
the coleoptile to distribute the chemical evenly or offset to increase the
concentration on one side.
When the growth promoting chemical was distributed evenly the coleoptile grew
straight. If the chemical was distributed unevenly, the coleoptile curved away
from the side with the cube, as if growing towards light, even though it was
grown in the dark.

Went later proposed that the messenger substance is a growth-promoting

hormone, which he named auxin, that becomes asymmetrically distributed in the
bending region. Went concluded that auxin is at a higher concentration on the
shaded side, promoting cell elongation, which results in a coleoptiles bending
towards the light. MD
Behavior of IAA

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 Functions of Auxin

Cell division – promotes cell growth and differentiation

Cell elongation – enlargement of shoot and root tips behind meristem
thus helps in growth
Apical dominance – inhibits the development of lateral buds in plants
potato sprout can be delayed by spraying auxin
Suppression of abscission layer – prevents formation of abscission layer
delays leaf and fruit fall
Weed control – helpful in controlling the weeds
in agricultural fields and lawns
Root initiation – activates root initiation
helpful in gardening
Flower initiation – in plants like Litchi and pineapple promotes flowering
initiates early flowering, more profit
Parthenocarpy – production of fruits without pollination and seeds
helpful in developing seedless varieties of fruits, better quality, more profit
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“Foolish Seedling Disease” Bakanae in Japanese)
Gibberellins are a group of plant hormones responsible for
growth and development.

Chemically speaking, gibberellins are actually acids. They

are produced in the plant cell's plastids, or the double
membrane-bound organelles responsible for making food,
and are eventually transferred to the endoplasmic
reticulum of the cell, where they are modified and prepared
for use.
Commercial production of tomato
Functions:
 Stem elongation – dwarf varieties of plants can be grown taller
 growing exceptionally taller plants (Bolting)
 Leaf expansion – increase in leaf area for photosynthesis
 Dormancy breaking – of buds and seeds
 Enzyme synthesis – synthesis of digestive enzymes like protease,
amylase, lipase that helps to mobilize stored nutrients.
 Parthenocarpy – developing fruits without pollination & fertilization
 Sec expression – inducing male flowers instead of female flowers
 Flowering – initiates flowering on long day plants under short day
condition.
Functions
Gibberellins are growth hormones that stimulate cell elongation and cause
plants to grow taller. Gibberellins also have a role in other plant processes,
such as stem elongation, germination, flowering, and fruit ripening. In humans,
the pituitary gland secretes the human growth hormone at appropriate times;
the plastids of a plant secrete gibberellin in a similar fashion.

Once a plant releases gibberellins, its cells begin a process of elongation.

Since plants are composed of single cells stacked on top of one another, this
elongation of thousands of individual cells results in the overall growth of the
plant.

From this information, you might deduce that gibberellins are extremely
significant in the greenhouse and florist industry throughout the world. Many
dwarf plants that are used in landscaping are short because the plant either
cannot produce gibberellins, or its cells are not receptive to the hormone. Dwarf
trees, like the bonsai seen here, have highly reduced amounts of gibberellin.