CHAPTER 14: COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE PLANT

PERCEPTION AND TRANSDUCTION

 The site of perception is not the site of response, so a form of communication must exist
 The site of perception is tentatively assumed to be the site of transduction
 Transduction is still a complete mystery in all plant responses
FACTORS THAT ARE IMPORTANT IN PERCEPTION AND TRANSDUCTION
 Presentation Time
- the length of time the stimulus must be present for the perceptive cells to react
and complete transduction
- a root must lie on its side long enough for statoliths to sink to the new bottom
of the cell; if the root is returned to vertical before they can settle, no
perception occurs
- after the stimulus has acted long enough to fulfill the presentation time, a
response occurs even if the stimulus is removed

 Threshold
- refers to the level of stimulus that must be present during presentation time
- plants in a dark environment experience low curvature
- plants in a bright environment experience high curvature
Related to threshold is the level of response relative to the level of stimulation; the
alternatives are ALL-OR-NONE responses and DOSAGE-DEPENDENT responses

 All-or-none
- after the threshold and presentation time requirements are met, the stimulus
is no longer important
- the response is completely internal
 Dosage-dependent responses
- the amount or duration of the stimulus affects the amount or duration of
the response
CHEMICAL MESSENGERS
- hormones are organic chemicals produced in one part of a plant and then
transported to other parts where they initiate a response
 Auxins
- first plant hormone discovered
- identified as chemical messenger in1926
- involved in phototropism in oat seedlings
- identifying it chemically was impossible because it is present in such low
concentrations
  Cytokinins
- named for the fact that their addition to a tissue culture medium containing
auxin and sugar stimulates cell division called cytokinesis
- are purines, related to adenine
- are involved in dozens of responses in all parts of the plant
- root-shoot coordination is an important response
 Gibberellins
- 125 gibberellins are known
- numbered G1, G2. G3, … G125
- a compound cannot be a gibberellin if it does not have a gibberellin ring
system
- metabolism is complex
- only a few are known as active hormones
 Abscisic Acid
- contains single compound
- play a role in abscission of fruits, leaves and flowers
- inhabited as growth inhibitor
- heating leaves, waterlogging roots, chilling and high salinity have all been
found to cause increase in ABA
- if healthy plants are pretreated with ABA, they become more resilient to
stressful conditions
- the stimulus appears to be soil dryness
 Ethylene
- only gaseous plant hormone
- has the simplest structure
- controls ripening of most of fruits
OTHER HORMONES
 Brassinosteroids
- involved in leaf morphogenesis, root and stem growth
 Jasmonic acid
- involved in defense against animals and fungi
 Salicylic acid
- involved in resistance to pathogens, especially viruses
SIGNAL AMPLIFICATION CASCADE
One of the most important signal amplification cascades is the Mitogen Activated
Protein. It plays an important role in signal amplification for many types of development in
animals and plants. This is also believed to be to have arisen very early in the evolution of
eukaryotes.