Environmental control of development
- Related Topics:
- plant
- biological development
The rate of maturation and the timing of the transition to the reproductive phase are sometimes governed by internal controls and thus are relatively insensitive to the environment, provided conditions are generally favourable for growth. Frequently, however, the developmental rate is affected profoundly by recurring cycles in the environment, particularly those of temperature and of day length. In effect, these cycles provide a timetable for the plant, thus adjusting flowering, fruiting, and seed dispersal to the season and increasing the chances for successful propagation.
The control of the developmental rate by temperature is especially evident in many herbaceous plants of temperate climates. These plants, as indicated earlier, often must experience cold, either as seeds or as young plants, before they can begin flower production; otherwise they undergo an excessively long period of leafy, or vegetative, growth. After the cold experience, which can be given artificially, the plant is said to have been vernalized, or brought to the spring condition. Again the response is akin to a determination, because the condition attained is transmitted through subsequent cell divisions. Furthermore, there are indications that vernalization induces a persistent modification in the metabolism of apical cells and their derivatives.
The annual cycle of changing day length obviously provides the best of all “clocks” for the regulation of plant development. The effect of day length (or rather length of continuous darkness) on the transition to flowering is part of the general phenomenon of photoperiodism. Certain plants, called short-day plants, grow vegetatively when the nights are shorter than a critical minimum period (days long); exposure to longer nights (days short), however, accelerates development and brings on early flowering. Conversely, long-day plants develop very slowly toward flowering during daily cycles with longer than a minimum of darkness (days short), and are accelerated by exposure to short nights (days long). Other plants either require days of intermediate length for flowering or respond to a sequence of different photoperiods.
The leaf, rather than the stem apex, is the light-receiving organ in the photoperiodic reaction, although it is at the apex that subsequent developmental changes occur. As in the case of vernalization, photoperiod undoubtedly affects the metabolism of the known plant hormones, and so influences many other developmental responses apart from flowering. The effect of the duration of illumination on the carbohydrate balance of the plant may also be important. Nutritional effects on flowering are well known in many species—certain fruit trees, for example.
Whether or not environmental factors influence the passage into a reproductive state of a plant, the transition must be viewed as part of the general development from juvenility to maturity: in this sense, flowering is not a radical alternative to vegetative growth but its culmination. Yet, entirely new organ types are produced at the flowering apex, presumably under the influence of genes inactive during vegetative growth.
Seasonal adaptations
Certain plants are perennial and survive from year to year by matching their growth to the progression of the seasons or by suspending growth altogether during unfavourable times, such as winter or a dry season.
In the temperate zone, sometime before winter begins, growth ceases in the shoots of woody plants, resting buds are formed, and deciduous trees lose their leaves. The resting bud consists of a short axis, with the stem apex surrounded by modified unexpanded leaves, which protect the stem, especially from drying. The cells show marked frost resistance, similar to that of the embryo of the seed. Corresponding changes occur in herbaceous plants, in which the preparation for winter may involve the dying back of aerial parts altogether, leaving protected organs at or below the soil surface.
Growth sometimes ceases, even under favourable conditions, as a result of internal changes in the plant. This is true for some trees, which cease growth in midsummer. The passage into winter dormancy, however, is often controlled by the shortening of day length at the end of the growing season; in some plants, decreasing night temperature also plays a part. Most temperate-zone trees cease growth and form resting buds when the day-length falls below a critical minimum.
Photoperiodic control seems to involve the formation of inhibitor compounds. In birches, for example, the leaf perceives the day-length “signal” and transmits inhibitory materials to the apex, thus bringing growth to a stop and inducing the formation of a resting bud. The dormancy hormone, abscisic acid, may be concerned in this response and also in stomata closure in response to water stress and in leaf abscission (the separation of the leaf from the plant); there is a great deal of debate among scientists concerning what role, if any, this hormone plays in abscission. Other signaling hormones, such as indole-3-acetic acid (an auxin) and ethylene, appear to play a more significant role in leaf abscission.
Budbreak in certain trees is controlled by photoperiod, growth resuming in the lengthening days of spring; light-perceptive organs are probably the young leaves inside the bud scales. Sometimes budbreak depends only on temperature increases that occur in spring, as in certain plants of Mediterranean climates.
The resumption of development in buds may result from a change in the balance of growth-inhibiting substances, such as abscisic acid, and growth promoters, notably the gibberellins. Buds can be caused to open prematurely by gibberellin treatment, which, as in the case of vernalization, can sometimes replace a cold experience; moreover, the gibberellin content in the buds of certain woody plants increases during chilling. Other hormones are probably also involved, however, for budbreak in plants such as the grapevine can be promoted by cytokinins, the plant cell-division factors.
An important general feature of adaptive periodicities is that the developmental changes anticipate the conditions for which they will ultimately provide the appropriate physiological or morphological adjustment. The ability of plants to utilize environmental indicators such as temperature and day-length changes is vital for the survival of plants. The production of such adaptive devices is made possible by the state of continuous embryogeny, already stressed as one of the most important characteristics of plant growth.