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Life, 4/e

Ricki Lewis, University of New York at Albany
Mariëlle Hoefnagels, University of Oklahoma
Douglas Gaffin, University of Oklahoma
Bruce Parker, Utah Valley State College

Plant Responses to Stimuli

eLearning

29.1 How do Plants Grow?

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1. Plants respond to the environment with changes in growth and movement, mediated by the action of hormones.

2. Auxins stimulate cell elongation in shoot tips, embryos, young leaves, flowers, fruits, and pollen. Auxins are more concentrated at the main shoot tip, which blocks growth of lateral buds(apical dominance).

3. Gibberellins stimulate cell division and elongation but act more slowly than auxins.

4. Cytokinins stimulate mitosis in actively developing plant parts.

5. Ethylene speeds ripening

6. Abscisic acid inhibits the growth-inducing effects of other hormones.

29.2 How Do Plants Move?

7. A tropism is a growth response toward or away from an environmental stimulus, usually caused when different parts of an organ or structure grow at different rates.

8. In phototropism, light sends auxin to the shaded portion of the plant, stimulating growth towards the light.

9. Shoot growth is a negative gravitropism, and root growth is a positive gravitropism. The positions of amyoplasts in cells apparently help plants detect gravity.

10. Thigmotropism is a response to touch.

11. Nastic movements are not oriented toward a stimulus. Thigmonatsy is response to contact. Nastic response to light and dark is photonasty, caused by osmotic changes that differently alter cell volume.

29.3 How Do Plants Respond to Seasonal Changes?

12. Plants sense seasonal and other environmental changes. Photoperiodism is teh ability of a plant to measure length of day and night. Flowering can depend upon photoperiodism.

13. Short-day plants flower only when the duration of light is less than a critical length. Long-day plants require a light period of longer than a critical length. Day-neutral plants do not use light or dark cues to flower. The type of plant determines the season when it flowers.

14. Plants may respond to length of darkness rather than length of daylight.

15. A plant pigment, phytochrome, controls response to light. One form, P_r, absorbs red light to become P_fr. P_fr promotes flowering of long-day plants and inhibits flowering of short-day plants. It is reconverted to P_r by absorbing far-red light. The ration between these two forms provides information about daylight because sunlight has more red than far-red light.

16. Phytochrome controls seed germination and early seeding growth, and helps direct shoot phototropism.

Senescence is an active and passive cessation of growth. Growth becomes dormant during cold or dry times and resumes when environmental conditions are more favorable.

29.4 Plant Circadian Rhythms

18. Internal biological clocks control daily responses, or circadian rhythms. Environmental changes can alter, or entrain, these clocks.

19. Heliotropism (solar tracking) is a circadian rhythm in which flowers face teh sun when cells in the upper stem respond to blue light.

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