Learning Resource Materials

Growth and Development and Plant Growth Regulation

Target Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. Understand the concept of Growth and development of crops

2. Define seed dormancy and enumerate the causes of seed dormancy and the
corresponding method/s for breaking them;
3. Break seed dormancy due to impermeable seed coat using mechanical, physical and
chemical means;
4. Describe the effect of some environmental conditions on germination 5. Differentiate
the two types of germination and determine crops belonging to each classification;
6. Explain the effect of hormones on plants.
7. Describe the sigmoid curve in terms of population and individual plant growth.

Abstraction

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AND PLANT GROWTH REGULATION

Development
✓ Denote the attainment of size by virtue of growth and architectural style by the
concomitant process of morphogenesis.
✓ Has three interrelated aspects, namely: growth, differentiation, and organization.

Growth
✓ Is an irreversible time change generally accompanied by an increase in size, weight or
mass.

Differentiation
✓ Is the outward sign of selective gene action, the reflection of change in the cell's
biochemical program as a consequence of the release of information encoded in one
dimensional sequences.

Organization
✓ Orientation and integration of the differentiated cells in space together with regulated
growth with the consequent attainment of form and structure of the complete
organism.

Correlation
 ✓ Regulatory effect exerted by one part of the plant on the growth and development in
another part.

Endogenous rhythm
✓ Recurring events or oscillations with properties not directly reflecting environmental
fluctuations
a. Annual - reoccur every year
b. Lunar - reoccur every new moon
c. Circadian - recur every 24 hours

Plant movements
✓ May exhibit movement of some organs in response to environmental stimuli.

Three steps in plant movement:

1. Perception involves recognition of the environmental stimulus by the plant 2.
Transduction - involves biochemical and biophysical changes which occur in response to
perceived stimulus
3. Response – shows the changes in the organ affected by the perceived stimulus

Two categories of plant movements:

1. Tropic movements (tropisms) direction of the environmental stimulus determines the
direction of the movement
a. Phototropism - response to light
b. Gravitropism- response to gravity
c. Solar tracking - flat blade of the leaf is always at nearly right angle to the sun
throughout the day

2. Nastic movements movement maybe triggered by an internal timing mechanism

(biologic clock) and the direction of the stimulus may not determine the direction of
movement.
a. Hyponasty - bending up of leaves
b. Epinasty- bending down of leaves
c. Nyctinasty - folding of some leaves in response to light which usually assumes a
rhythmic pattern because of its interaction with the biological clock
d. Hydronasty- the folding and rolling of leaves in response to water
e. Thigmonasty- response to touch or mechanical stress
f. Seismonasty- response to shaking without contact to the organism

Crop Adaptation

1. Morphological adaptation - exemplified by the presence of metamorphosed or specialized

organs which performs non- typical functions. Example: pneumatophores or modified roots of
certain trees growing in marshes which serves as "breathing" organs.

2. Physiological adaptation exemplified by the closing of stomates of many bromeliads during

the day to help conserve water as well as the abscission of leaves in deciduous plants to
reduce the evaporative surface area thereby conserving moisture and lowering of
compensation point.

3. Biochemical adaptation - biochemical changes with some bearing on certain survival

mechanisms such as the increase in proline and abscisic acid and osmolytes in plants during
period of moisture stress to regulate increased water-holding capacity of tissues for moisture
as well as stomatal closure to conserve water.
PLANT GROWTH REGULATION
Phytohormones
- Organic substances other than vitamins and nutrients which are active in very minute
(often <2uM) amounts
- Formed in certain parts of the plant and which are usually are translocated to other sites
where they promote, inhibit, or otherwise modify physiological, biochemical and/or
morphological processes.
- In general, PGRS are promotive at relatively low concentrations but become inhibitory
at relatively higher concentrations
- Endogenous PGRS are called plant hormones or phytohormones

1. Auxin
- Generic term applied to growth regulators with the special capacity to promote cell
elongation.
- Naturally occurring auxins are the indole-auxins represented by indole-3-acetic acid
(IAA)
- IAA is synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan primarily in actively-growing
tissues. It is also produced in mature leaves and root tips, although at much lower
concentrations
- IAA transport is cell to cell and is polar in nature. The basipetal transport to the root
and acropetal transport to the upper organs involves vascular and non-vascular tissues.

Effects
a. Promotes cell enlargement and cell division in the cambium in tissue culture
b. Stimulates differentiation of phloem and xylem
c. Stimulates root initiation in cuttings
d. Induces ethylene biosynthesis at supra-optimal concentration
e. Mediates the tropic bending responses of shoots and roots to gravity, light and touch
f. Promotes apical dominance
g. Delays leaf senescence and leaf and fruit abscission
h. Promotes fruit setting and fruit development in some plants
i. Can also delay fruit ripening but may promote flowering in some plants (Ex.
bromeliads) j. Induces femaleness in dioecious flowers (via ethylene)
k. Induction of parthenocarpic (seedless) fruit development (Ex, tomato) l.
Popularly used as herbicides (Ex. 2,4-D, 2,3,5-T [agent orange], dicamba etc.)

2. Gibberellic acid (GA)

- Belong to a family of compounds based on the ent- gibberellane structure - Gas is
synthesized from mevalonic acid in 1) elongating shoots, 2) young leaves of developing
apical buds, 3) developing seeds and fruits, and 4) apical regions of the roots - The major
conduit for the non-polar transport of GAs is the phloem

Effects
 a. Stimulates stem elongation (may reverse physiological and genetic dwarfism in plants)
b. Promotes bolting (rapid elongation of floral stem) in long day plants c. Induces
germination of seeds that normally require a cold treatment (stratification) or light
(positively photoblastic seeds)
d. Stimulates de novo synthesis of an amylase in germinating cereal grains
e. Promotes fruit set and fruit growth in some fruits (Ex. grapes)
f. Induces maleness in dioecious flowers of some species.

3. Cytokinin (CK)
- Adenine derivatives which have the capacity to induce cell division in tissue culture. -
The most common CK base in plants is zeatin, the first natural CK which was isolated
from corn endosperm.
- Synthesized through the biochemical modification of adenine.
- The major site of CK biosynthesis is at the root apical meristem although seeds
(embryo) and developing leaves have been shown to produce significant amounts of
CK as well
- CK produced in the roots is transported to the upper organs via xylem.

Effects
a. Regulates morphogenesis in cultured tissues (in synergy with auxin)
b. Releases lateral buds from apical dominance
c. Delays leaf senescence d. Promotes cotyledon and leaf expansion
e. Promotes nutrient mobilization
f. Enhances stomatal opening in some species
g. Enhances accumulation of chlorophyll as it promotes the conversion of etioplasts into
chloroplast

4. Ethylene
- Only phytohormone occurring in gas state
- It is an unsaturated hydrocarbon synthesized from the amino acid methionine (primary
precursor) in many tissues in response to stress
- Ethylene does not seem to be essential for normal vegetative growth but it is the only
hydrocarbon with a pronounced effect on plants
- Synthesized in most tissues in response to senescence and stresses
- Being a gas, ethylene moves by diffusion from the site of biosynthesis.

Effects
a. Promotes ripening of climacteric fruits
b. Induces epinasty
c. Induces lateral cell expansion
d. Formation of adventitious roots
e. Induces flowering in pineapple and other bromeliads
f. Enhances flower, fruits and leaf senescence
g. Induces femaleness in dioecious flowers of some species
h. Promotes shoot and root growth differentiation
i. Releases tissues/organs from dormancy
j. Promotes leaf and fruit abscission
k. Enhances flower opening in some species
5. Abscisic acid (ABA)
- Synthesized from mevalonic acid in mature leaves particularly in response to water
stress. Seeds are also rich in ABA which may be imported from the leaves or
synthesized in situ.
- ABA is exported from leaves in the phloem. There are some evidences that ABA may
circulate to the roots in the phloem and then return to the shoots in the xylem

Effects
a. Counteracts the effect of gibberellins on a-amylase synthesis in germinating cereal
grains
b. Enhances stomatal closure (e.g., during water stress)
c. Promotes leaf senescence
d. Promotes storage protein synthesis in seeds
e. Induces transport of photosynthates towards developing seeds and its subsequent
uptake by growing embryos
f. Induces and/or maintains dormancy in seeds and buds