Scientists Explain the Mechanism Behind Phototropism
June 13, 2013| |
Scientists from the Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany and Université de Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland have identified the hormone responsible for phototropism, saying that auxin, a phytohormone formed in cells at the tip of shoots, is the driving force behind the mechanism. The theory that auxin plays a role in plants bending towards a light source was first proposed in 1937, but it is only now that an auxin regulation model got confirmed. The UNIL team were able to deactivate several plant transporters, while TUM scientists demonstrated how the D6PK protein kinase functioned. The researchers observed that when several transporters and kinase compounds were missing, plants became completely unresponsive to the light signals responsible for phototropism. The auxin transport mechanism in these plants was severely impaired and they grew upwards, away from the gravitational pull. This finding proved for the first time that auxin is definitely the substance responsbile for phototropism.
For more details about this research, read the news release at http://www.tum.de/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/short/article/30854/.
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