PLANT GROWTH

REGULATORS
Ayesha Hameed
Pharm-D (PU)
M.Phil Pharmacognosy (PU)
 DEFINITION

 Plant hormones or phytohormones are

sometime referred to as plant growth
factors.

A plant growth regulator is an organic

compound, either natural or synthetic, that
modifies or controls one or more specific
physiological processes within a plant.
4
5
 PROPERTIES

 Specific in their action

 Active in very low concentration

 Physiological intercellular messengers

 Control the complete plant life cycle, including:

⚫ Germination
⚫ Rooting
⚫ Growth
⚫ Flowering
⚫ Fruit ripening
⚫ Foliage and death
 Secreted in response to environmental
factors such as:

⚫Excessof nutrients
⚫Drought conditions
⚫Light
⚫Temperature
⚫Chemical or physiological stress 7
 Levels of hormones change over the life span
of a plant and are dependent upon season and
environment.

hormones are classified into two classes:

 Plant

⚫Synthetic hormones or exogenous

regulators
⚫Native or endogenous regulators

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CLASSES OF GROWTH HORMONE

5 Major Classes

 Auxins
 Cytokinins
 Gibberellins
 Abscisic acid
 Ethylene
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OTHER GROWTH REGULATORS
 Less specific action
 No common specific structures
 Only a few recurrent functional groups Some
regulators are being investigated like:
⚫ Polyamines
⚫ Putrescine or Spermidine
⚫ Brassinosteroids
⚫ Salicylic Acid

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 POSTULATED HORMONES
Also produced spontaneously in the plant
body but their structure and function i s
not clearly discovered yet.
 Florigen
 Vernalin

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 MAJOR ROLE OF
GROWTH REGULATORS
1. Abscission:
 Process by which a plant drops one or more of its
parts, such as a leaf, fruit, flower or seed.

2. Ripening:
 Process in fruits causes them to become more palatable
 A fruit becomes sweeter, less green, and softer as it
ripens.
⚫ Fruit set
⚫ Leaf expansion [ethylene] 12

⚫ Plant senescence
3. Dormancy:

 Period of arrested plant growth

 A survival strategy exhibited by many plant
species, which enables them to survive in
unfavourable climates
 Chemical treatment on dormant plants has been
proven to an effective method to break dormancy,
particularly in woody plants such as grapes, berries,
apples, peaches and kiwis.
 Specifically, hydrogen cyanamide stimulates cell
division and growth in dormant plants:
⚫ Fruit abscission
⚫ Fruit ripening 13
4. Plant senescence:
 Study of aging in plants
 Plants also seem to have both unintended and programmed
aging (influenced by plant hormones)
 Leaf senescence is the cause of autumn leaf colour in
deciduous trees.
 Cytokinins help to maintain the plant cell but when they are
withdrawn or if the cell cannot receive the cytokinin it may
then undergo apoptosis or senescence.
⚫ Root initiation
⚫ Seed germination
⚫ Stem elongation 14
15
 HISTORY

 First plant hormones discovered.

 Charles Darwin – among the first
scientists to pool in plant hormone research
 Salkowski (1885) discovered indole-3-acetic
acid (IAA) in fermentation media
 In 1926, Fritz Went reported a plant growth
substance.
 In 1954 a committee of plant physiologists
was set up to characterize the group auxins. 16
 INTRODUCTION
 Greek word ‘auxein’ - to grow.
 Compounds are considered as auxins if
they are able to induce cell elongation in
stems and otherwise resemble IAA (the
first Auxin isolated) in physiological
activity.
 IAA is the principal natural auxin.

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 Natural Auxins Synthetic Auxins
 Indole -3-  Indole-3-butyric

acetonitirle (IAN) acid (IBA)

 Phenyl acetic acid  α-naphthyl acetic

 4-chloro-indole-3-
acid (NAA)
 2-naphthyl oxy
acetic acid
acetic acid (NOA)
 1-naphthyl
acetamide(NAD)
 2,4 dichlorophenoxy
acetic acid (2,4-D)
Auxin a Hormone
Auxins usually affect other processes in addition to cell elongation of 18
stem cells but this characteristic is considered critical of all auxins and thus
‘helps’ define the hormone.
 PRODUCTION AND
OCCURRENCE
 Produced in shoot and root, meristematic tissue, in
young leaves, mature root cells and small amounts in
mature leaves
 Transported throughout the plant parts

 Production is more in day time

 Released by all cells

 Ethylene has direct or indirect action over to enhance

the synthesis of auxin
 Tryptophan is called derivative of IAA
 ROLES
There are three major
affects caused by auxins on the plant.
1
. Auxin causes the tip of the middle stem to grow at a faster

rate.
⚫ This is known as apical dominance
⚫ Apical dominance is reason why many conifers have a
pyramid shape
2
. Auxins are responsible for allowing a plant stem
 to
grow toward the sun.
⚫ This is known as phototropism.
⚫ Sunlight slowly breaks down Auxin.
⚫ When the side not exposed to the sun grows
faster, the stem bends towards the light.
 3
.
 Auxins allow a plant to respond to
the touch of a person or other
object.
⚫ This is known as thigmotropism.
⚫ The repeated touch of an object
causes less auxin to remain on
that side of the stem.
⚫ When the auxin side starts to
grow faster, the plant grows
towards the object and

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ultimately wraps around it.
 FUNCTIONS OF AUXIN
 Stimulates cell elongation
 Stimulates differentiation of vascular tissue
 Stimulates root initiation on stem cuttings
and lateral root development in tissue
culture (Adventitious rooting)
 Mediate the tropistic response of bending in
response to gravity and light
 Auxins have various effects on leaf and
fruit ascission, Fruit set, development, 24
ripening
25
 HISTORY
 The first cytokinin was isolated from herring sperm
in 1955 by Miller and his associates.

 This compound was named kinetin because of its

ability to promote cytokinesis (cell division).

 The first naturally occurring cytokinin was

isolated from corn in 1961 by Miller and it was
later called zeatin. 26
 INTRODUCTION
 Cytokinins are compounds with a structure
resembling adenine which promote cell division
and have other similar functions to kinetin.
 Regulate the pattern and frequency of organ
production as well as position and shape.

 These are hormones that are

responsible for cell division mostly
differentiation: and
⚫ They are produced in the root tips in seeds.
⚫ They tend to travel up the stem. 27
28
 Kinetin Zeatin
 First cytokinin  The common
 Named b/c of the naturally occurring
cytokinin in plants
ability to promote today is called
cytokinesis (cell zeatin which was
division) isolated from corn.
 Natural compound
but not made in
plants, and is
therefore usually
considered
a ‘synthetic’
Natural Occurring Cytokinins:

 Zeatin
 N6 dimethyl amino purine

 Isopentanyl aminopurine

Synthetic Occurring Cytokinins:

There are more than 200 natural and synthetic cytokinins
identified.
 Kineatin

 Adenine

 6-benzyl adenine benzimidazole

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 N, N’-diphenyl urea
 PRODUCTION
 Produced in root and shoot meristematic tissue, in
mature shoot cells and in mature roots in small
amounts.
 Rapidly transported in xylem stream

 Peak production occurs in day time

 Activity is reduced in plants suffering drought

 It is directly or indirectly induced by high levels

of Gibberlic acid
 Cytokinin biosynthesis happens through the
biochemical modification of adenine 31
 OCCURRENCE
 Found in almost all higher plants as well as mosses,
fungi, bacteria, and also in many prokaryotes and
eukaryotes

 Cytokininconcentrations are more in meristematic

regions and areas of continuous growth potential
such as roots, young leaves, developing fruits, and
seeds
 FUNCTIONS
 Stimulates cell division

 Stimulates morphogenesis (shoot initiation / bud

formation) in tissue culture

 Stimulates the growth of lateral (or adventitious) buds

release of apical dominance

 Stimulates leaf expansion resulting from cell

enlargement

 Enhances stomatal opening in some species 34

 Stimulates the dark-germination of light-
dependent seeds

 Delays senescence

 Promotes some stages of root development

 INTRODUCTION
 This is a gas that affects the plant like a hormone.

 Ethylene has been used in practice since the ancient times,

where people would use gas figs in order to stimulate
ripening and burn incense in closed rooms to enhance the
ripening of pears.

 It was in 1864, that leaks of gas from street lights

showed stunting of growth, twisting of plants, and
abnormal thickening of stems. 37
 HISTORY
 In 1901, a Russian scientist named Dimitry Neljubow showed
that the active component was ethylene.

 Doubt 1917, discovered that ethylene stimulated

abscission.

 In 1934 Gane reported that plants synthesize

ethylene.

 In 1935, Crocker proposed that ethylene was the plant

hormone responsible for fruit ripening as well as 38
inhibition of vegetative tissues.
 PRODUCTION
 Directly induced by high levels of Auxin, root flooding
and drought.
 Light minimizes the production

 Ethylene is produced in all higher plants and is

produced from methionine in essentially all tissues.
 Production of ethylene varies with the type of tissue, the
plant species, and also the stage of development
 OCCURRENCE
 It is found in germinating seeds and
produced in nodes of stems, tissues of
ripening fruits, response to shoot
environmental, pest, or disease stress and
in senescent leaves and flowers.
 EFFECTS
 It is a regulator of cell death programs in
plants (apoptosis).
 It stimulates the release of dormancy

 It stimulates shoot and root growth and

differentiation (triple response).
 It regulates ripening of climacteric fruits.

 It May have a role in adventitious root

formation.
 It stimulates leaf and fruit abscission.
 Mangos, pineapples and some ornamentals are
stimulated by ethylene.
 Induction of femaleness in dioecious flowers is done
by it.
 It stimulates flower opening.
 Ethylene gas is why fruit will ripen faster in a paper
bag, than on the counter.
⚫ The bag helps to concentrate the gas in a specific
area.
 Ethylene has a negative effect on cut
flowers & foliages.
⚫ It causes them to age more quickly,
reducing their useful life.
 HISTORY
 The origin of research into gibberellins can be traced to Japanese
plant pathologists

 In 1934, Yabuta isolated gibberellin

 In 1938, Yabuta and his associate succeeded

production of gibberellins A and gibberellin B

 Gibberellin A3 was found to be identical to

gibberellic acid

 In the mid 1950s, evidence that gibberellins

were44 naturally occurring substances in higher plants began to
appear in the literature.
 INTRODUCTION
 Gibberellins are classified on the basis of
structure as well as function.
 All gibberellins are derived from the
entgibberellane skeleton.
 The gibberellins are named GA1.

 Gibberellic acid was the first gibberellin to be

structurally characterized as GA3.
 There are currently 136 GAs identified from plants,
fungi and bacteria.
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 PRODUCTION AND
OCCURRENCE
 Produced in the roots, embryo and germinating
seeds
 The level of gibberellins goes up in the dark when
sugar cannot be manufactured
 Released in mature cells (particularly root) when
they do not have enough sugar and oxygen to
support both themselves and released by all cells
 ROLES
 These hormones cause the inter-node of a stem to
elongate and cell division to occur.
 They are produced in the stems, roots and
young leaves.
 Flowering of plants and the breaking off of seed
dormancy can also be achieved
 Flowering in biennial plants is controlled by GA.

 Stimulates germination of pollen and growth of

pollen tubes.
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 It induces
expression
sex in
dioecious flowers
 It can cause
parthenocarpy
(seedless)
fruit development
or increase the
of seedless
size fruit
(grapes).
 It can delay
senescence in leaves
and citrus fruits.
 It may be involved
in phytochrome
responses.
49
 INTRODUCTION
 Abscisic acid is a single compound unlike the
auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins.

 It was called ‘abscisin II’ originally because it was

thought to play a major role in abscission of fruits.

 At about the same time another group was

calling it ‘dormin’ because they thought it had a
major role in bud dormancy. 50
 HISTORY
 In 1963, Frederick Addicott and his associates were
the one to identify abscisic acid.

 Two compounds were isolated and named as

abscisin I and abscisin II.

 Abscisin II is presently called abscisic acid (ABA).

 At the same time Philip Wareing, who was studying bud

dormancy in woody plants and Van Steveninck, who was
studying abscission of flowers and fruits discovered the
same compound. 51
PRODUCTION AND OCCURRENCE

 ABA is a naturally occurring sesquiterpenoid (15-carbon)

compound in plants, which is partially produced via the
mevalonic pathway in chloroplasts and other plastids.

 Because it is synthesized partially in the chloroplasts, it

makes sense that biosynthesis primarily occurs in the
leaves.

 The production of ABA is by stresses such as

52
water loss and freezing temperatures.
ROLES
 Inhibits growth

 Found in seeds
which are dormant
and in dying leaves

 Appears to help a
plant prepare its
buds for winter

 The abscisic acid

stimulates the
closure of stomata 53
 Prolongs seed dormancy and delays
germination
 Inhibits elongation.

 ABA coming from the plastids promotes the

metabolism of ripening.
 Reverses the effects of growth stimulating
hormones.
 Growth regulators are routinely sprayed on crops such as
poinsettias, Easter lilies and mums to reduce size and make a
shorter, bushier and more attractive plant.
⚫ Products such as A-rest, B-nine, Cycocel and
Florel are commonly used.
 Growth regulators are commonly used to help plants root
more complete.
⚫ These are often sold as a powder under the names Rootone
and Hormodin.

 Ethylene gas is used commercially to ripen bananas

once they get to market and to induce flowering in
pineapple crops 57