Some crucial arguments against the acid growth theory of auxin action (U Kutschera, P Schopfer [1985] Planta 163: 483-493) have been reinvestigated by simultaneous measurements of proton fluxes and growth of maize (Zea mays L.) coleoptiles. Special care was taken to obtain a mild, effective, and reproducible abrasion of the cuticle. Proton secretion rates were determined in a computer-controlle...

Although rapid auxin-induced growth of coleoptile sections can persist for at least 18 hours, acid-induced growth lasts for a much shorter period of time. Three theories have been proposed to explain this difference in persistence. To distinguish between these theories, the pH dependence for auxin-induced growth of oat (Avena sativa L.) coleoptiles has been determined early and late in the el...

A study has been made of the effects of auxin and growth on the ability of Avena coleoptile sections to osmoregulate, i.e. to take up solutes so as to maintain their osmotic concentration, turgor pressure, and growth rate. The high auxin-induced growth rate of Avena coleoptiles is maintained when cells are provided sucrose, glucose, NaCl, or KCl as a source of absorbable solutes, but not when 2...

ATP-dependent proton pumps were found in the vesicles of microsomal membrane fractions of maize coleoptiles. Two membrane fractions isolated by density gradient centrifugation were identified by the aid of marker enzymes and electron microscopic analysis. Membrane fraction A largely consisted of vesicles of smooth ER and of the Golgi complex, fraction B predominantly of vesicles of plasmalemma ...

Etiolated whole rice seedlings enclosed in sealed vials produced ethylene at a rate of 0.9 picomole per hour per seedling. When 2-centimeter-long shoots were subdivided into 5-millimeter-long sections, the sections containing the tip of the shoot evolved 37% of the total ethylene with the remaining 63% being produced along a gradient decreasing to the base of the shoot. The tip of the coleoptil...

It is known that removal of the endosperm (deseeding) reduces subsequent auxin production in the oat coleoptile tip and the "regeneration of the physiological tip" (auxin production) in the decapitated coleoptile as determined by the quantities of auxin which are secreted into agar blocks and assayed by the Avena curvature test (10). This decrease in auxin production is associated with parallel...