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KEY CONCEPT
Plant hormones guide plant growth and development.

PHYTOHORMONE

Growth in Animals
•  Animals grow throughout the whole
Growth & development involve three major processes:
organism
–  many regions & tissues at different rates
(increase in # of cells)
[elongation] (increase in size
of individual cells)
(transformation of meristematic
cells into mature types)

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Growth in Plants
•  Specific regions of growth: meristems
•  apical shoot meristem
–  growth in length
–  primary growth
•  apical root meristem
–  growth in length
–  primary growth
•  lateral meristem
–  growth in girth
–  secondary growth

Greek horman = to stimulate

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Terminology Plant Hormones

Phytohormone ... endogenous organic compounds active at very
A naturally occuring, organic substance that, at low low concentration, produced in one tissue, and
concentration, exerts a profound influence on plant translocated to another point in the plant where their
physiological processes effects on growth and development are manifested.

Plant Growth Substance •Plant "hormones" are sometimes preferentially referred

A substance that, at low concentration, exerts to as plant growth regulators (PGR) because they
a profound influence on physiological processes differ from animal hormones in the following ways:
• Plant hormones are not made in specialized tissues
Plant Growth Regulator • Plant hormones do not have specific target tissues
• Plant hormones usually do not have specific effects
A synthetic substance that, at low concentration,
exerts a profound influence on physiological processes

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Plant Hormones Selected hormones & their functions

v Unlike animal hormones, plant hormones are not made in tissues Hormone Source Principal functions
specialized for hormone production.
e.g.,
sex hormones made in the gonads, Testosterone Testes Stimulates development and
human growth hormone - pituitary gland maintenance of male sexual
characteristics.
Auxin: apical meristems,
young leave,
fruits Estrogen Ovaries Stimulates development and
maintenance of female sexual
v Unlike animal hormones, plant hormones do not have definite target areas characteristics.
(e.g., auxins can stimulate
adventitious root development in a cut shoot, or Progesterone Ovaries Stimulates female sexual
shoot elongation or apical dominance, or characteristics and maintains
differentiation of vascular tissue, etc.). pregnancy.

Unlike animal hormones, plant hormones usually do not have specific effects
Insulin Pancreas Controls blood-sugar level and
e.g. gibberellins can stimulate storage of glycogen
Seed Germination
Cell elongation

Plant hormones vs animal hormones

Plant hormones
☻ Small organic molecules
☻ Synthesized throught the plant
☻ Affect local cells and tissues, or can be transported
through the vascular system
☻ Wide-ranging effects
☻ “Decentralised regulation

Animal hormones
☻ Peptides/protein/small organic molecules
☻ Synthesized in specialized glands
☻ Affect distant target (Often transported in
circulatory system)
☻ Spesialized effects
☻ Regulated by the central nervous system

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How Hormones Work –

Signal Transduction Pathways

HORMONES
1. Endogenous
a.  Substance produced by a plant that affects the pattern of
growth and development.
b. Production by the plant is regulated by the environment.

2. Exogenous
a.  Substance applied to the plant that alters growth and
development in the same way that endogenous substances do.
b. May be the same or different chemically from the endogenous
substance

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Plant Hormones
A. Primary
1. Auxins
2. Cytokinins
3. Gibberellins
4. Abscisic Acid
5. Ethylene

B. Secondary - newly discovered
1. Jasmonic Acid 200
2. Brassinosteroids
3. Salicylic acid
4. Polyamines
5. Taxol

C. Others - not yet confirmed or understood
1. Peptide Hormones (animals maybe plants))
2. Oligosaccharides (cell wall signaling)
3. Phospholipids (inositol phosphates, diacylglycerides)

•  effects depend on
- site of action,
- stage of plant growth, and
- hormone concentration

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