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MOVEMENT OF ETHYLENE FROM ROOTS TO SHOOTS, A FACTOR IN THE RESPONSES OF TOMATO PLANTS TO WATERLOGGED SOIL CONDITIONS
Author(s) -
JACKSON MICHAEL B.,
CAMPBELL D. JOAN
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1975.tb01350.x
Subject(s) - shoot , transpiration stream , petiole (insect anatomy) , ethylene , lycopersicon , waterlogging (archaeology) , biology , transpiration , horticulture , botany , chemistry , agronomy , photosynthesis , ecology , hymenoptera , biochemistry , wetland , catalysis
SUMMARY Epinastic growth by petioles of tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., cv. Moneymaker) is stimulated by waterlogging the soil and the responding leaves and other shoot parts contain higher concentrations of ethylene than those of non‐waterlogged plants. Waterlogged soil also contains increased amounts of ethylene in solution and the possibility that ethylene from this source can move to the shoots of waterlogged plants has been tested by applying the gas to the roots of plants growing in water culture. When concentrations of 2 ppm and above are supplied in this way, petiole epinasty develops in association with increases in ethylene extracted from the responding petioles. When 100 ppm is applied to the roots, increases in ethylene in the petioles precede the development of epinastic growth. Use of [ 14 C] labelled ethylene indicates that the gas can move rapidly, unchanged from roots to shoots. The movement of ethylene and epinastic growth are both reduced if plants are previously steam‐girdled near the base of the stem, suggesting that much ethylene moves by a route other than the transpiration stream. Ethylene supplied to the roots is shown to promote adventitious rooting and downward rolling of the young leaf laminae and to modify the orientation of shoot growth in the tomato mutant‘diageotropica’. It is proposed that increases in soil ethylene and movement of the gas to the shoot system are factors contributing to the development of epinasty and other responses of the shoots to waterlogging the soil.