home news forum careers events suppliers solutions markets expos directories catalogs resources advertise contacts
 
Forum Page

Forum
Forum sources  
All Africa Asia/Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East North America
  Topics
  Species
 

University of Queensland study overturns belief that plant hormones control the shape of plant growth


Queensland, Australia
April 7, 2014

Plant growth shaped by sugars.
Plant growth shaped by sugars.

A University of Queensland study has overturned the long-held belief that plant hormones control the shape of plant growth, and shown instead that this process starts with sugar.

Shoot branching in plants is a vital process in agriculture and this finding will contribute toward the Queensland Government’s goal to double agricultural production by 2040 and the global need to increase food production.

Senior author on the study, Professor Christine Beveridge from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, said this finding will help to increase crop productivity by improving plant structure.

“The growth of shoots and number of branches are very important to productivity and profitability, particularly in crops like avocado, macadamia and mango,” she said.

“We discovered that this process is initiated by sugar rather than hormones as previously believed.

“This discovery is so simple yet it has been overlooked for nearly a century.”

Previous studies have focused on the plant hormone auxin as the regulator of shoot branching.

Professor Beveridge and her team showed that shoot branching can begin up to 24 hours before auxin levels change, so it cannot be responsible for initiating this process.

Instead they found that shoot growth occurs when a high concentration of simple sugar (table sugar) - produced by the plant through photosynthesis - is available.

“Plants have a ‘goliath’ main shoot which hoards the sugars to promote its growth,” Professor Beveridge said.

“If the main shoot is damaged or removed the sugars are quickly redistributed to start the growth of new shoots.

“As gardeners know, deliberately removing the main shoot will direct a plant’s growth outward rather than upward, which can be very important in agriculture.”

UQ is working with The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL), NSW Department of Primary Industries and the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) to transform the productivity and profitability of tropical and subtropical tree crops.

Dr John Wilkie, Principal Horticulturalist and head of this initiative within DAFF, said that this discovery would aid further research into how tree crops divide sugar between tree growth and fruiting.

“Manipulating the number of branches can optimise the production of fruit and seeds, leading to greater agricultural productivity,” he said.

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 7 April 2014.



More news from: University of Queensland


Website: http://www.uq.edu.au

Published: April 8, 2014



SeedQuest does not necessarily endorse the factual analyses and opinions
presented on this Forum, nor can it verify their validity.

 

 

12 books on plant breeding, classic, modern and fun
 

12 livres sur l'amélioration des plantes : classiques, modernes et amusants

 
 

The Triumph of Seeds

How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History

By Thor Hanson 

Basic Books

 
 

 

 

Hybrid
The History and Science of Plant Breeding
 

Noel Kingsbury
The University of Chicago Press

 

 
1997-2009 archive
of the FORUM section
.

 


Copyright @ 1992-2024 SeedQuest - All rights reserved