ISHS Acta Horticulturae 179: V International Symposium on Growth Regulators in Fruit Production
SOME THOUGHTS ON HORMONAL REGULATION OF BUD AND SEED DORMANCIES |
| Authors: | P. Champagnat, D. Côme |
| Abstract:
The customary definition of dormancies, by contrasting them with inhibitions enamating from the ambient environment or from other parts of the plant, implicity makes them a property of the meristems and assumes that anything that is not meristem is of little importance. The hormonal theory is not, therefore, based on a biology of meristems. The measurements concern whole seeds or buds. Biological tests intended to determine the physiological state of the seed or bud are performed using whole organs, always associated with, in the case of buds, more or less sizeable portions of stems. it is not then out of the question that the growth or inertia of the meristems are governed from the outside and that, in consequence, they depend on correlations over relatively short distances. Now, in well-characterized dormancies of seeds or buds, it can be shown that the inertia of the meristems arises from correlative inhibitions transmitted by neighbouring tissues or by organs capable, or not, of growth. Examples of correlations of this type are discussed, both for buds and seeds. They relate essentially to physicochemical (intracellular pH) or metabolic (ability to synthesize non-adenylic nucleotides) characteristics. These results do not mean that dormancy is associated with purely trophic correlations. Growth regulators certainly play a part. We give some evidence for this. | |
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