Light is vital to plant life, not only as an energy source for photosynthesis but also as an important environmental signal regulating development and growth. Light affects almost every stage of plant development (Kendrick and Kronenberg, 1994), including seedling development, which represents one of the most dramatic and best characterized processes (von Arnim and Deng, 1996). In Arabidopsis t...

Field-emission scanning electron microscopy was used to measure wall thicknesses of different cell types in freeze-fractured hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana. Measurements of uronic acid content, wall mass, and wall volume suggest that cell wall biosynthesis in this organ does not always keep pace with, and is not always tightly coupled to, elongation. In light-grown hypocotyls, walls thicken...

Some of the most striking features of Rhizophoraceae mangrove saplings are their voluminous cylinder-shaped hypocotyls and thickened leaves. The hypocotyls are known to serve as floats during seed dispersal (hydrochory) and store nutrients that allow the seedling to root and settle. In this study we investigate to what degree the hypocotyls and leaves can serve as water reservoirs once seedling...

Many plants exude allelochemicals--compounds that affect the growth of neighbouring plants. This study reports further studies of the reported effect of cress (Lepidium sativum) seed(ling) exudates on seedling growth in Amaranthus caudatus and Lactuca sativa. In the presence of live cress seedlings, both species grew longer hypocotyls and shorter roots than cress-free controls. The effects of c...

The most vulnerable stage in the life of plants is the seedling. The transition from wild to agricultural land that plants experienced during and after domestication implied a noticeable change in the seedlings' environment. Building on current knowledge of seedling ecology, and on previous studies of cassava, we hypothesise that cultivation should have promoted epigeal germination of seedlings...

In the present study, Glycyrrhiza uralensis (Leguminosae) seeds were germinated and grown with different concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mmol/l) of cadmium acetate, in order to investigate the effects of cadmium on the growth, uptake, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activities in Glycyrrhiza u...

Whether root systems an(d tops of plants are essentially alike or notably different with regard to their temperature relations is an importanit question in fundamental plaiit physiology, as well as in ecology, in pathology, and in the study of the climatic distribution of plants in nature and in cultivation. This general question is dealt with in the present paper with respect to seedlings of t...

Developing seedlings of Catharanthus roseus were analyzed for appearance of tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC), strictosidine synthase (SS), N-methyltransferase (NMT) and O-acetyltransferase (DAT) enzyme activities. SS enzyme activity appeared early after germination and was present throughout most of the developmental study. TDC activity was highly regulated and peaked over a 48 hour period achiev...

BBX21 (also known as SALT TOLERANCE HOMOLOG 2), a B-box (BBX)-containing protein, has been previously identified as a positive regulator of light signaling; however, the precise role of BBX21 in regulating seedling photomorphogenesis remains largely unclear. In this study, we report that CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) interacts with BBX21 in vivo and is able to ubiquitinate BBX21 in v...