Arabinofuranosyltransferase activity was identified in Golgi membranes obtained from mung bean (Vigna radiata) hypocotyls. The enzyme transfers the arabinofuranosyl (Araf) residue from UDP-beta-L-arabinofuranose to exogenous (1, 5)-linked alpha-L-arabino-oligosaccharides labeled at their reducing ends with 2-aminobenzamide. The transferred residue was shown, using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance ...

A study has been made of the means by which light influences the gravitropic set-point angle (GSA) of the nodes of Tradescantia and the hypocotyls of the lazy-2 mutant of tomato. In light-grown Tradescantia there is a light-regulated developmental change in the GSA with the magnitude of this change being dependent on the photon flux density of white light. The photosynthetic inhibitor DCMU abol...

Light is essential for plant survival; as such, plants flexibly adjust their growth and development to best harvest light energy. Brassinosteroids (BRs), plant growth-promoting steroid hormones, are essential for this plasticity of development. However, the precise mechanisms underlying BR-mediated growth under different light conditions remain largely unknown. Here, we show that darkness incre...

Anion channels are thought to participate in signal transduction and turgor regulation in higher plant cells. The regulation of hypocotyl cell elongation is a situation in which these channels could play important roles because it involves ionic fluxes that are implicated in turgor control and orchestrated by various signals. We have used a pharmacological approach to reveal the contribution of...

Proteins in extracts from cotyledons, hypocotyls, and roots of 5-d-old, dark-grown soybean (Glycine max L. Merr. cv Williams) seedlings were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Three isoforms of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) were resolved and visualized in gels stained for GDH activity. Two isoforms with high electrophoretic mobility, GDH1 and GDH2, were in protein extracts from co...

Gravitropism in Arabidopsis shoots depends on the sedimentation of amyloplasts in the endodermis, and a complex interplay between the vacuole and F-actin. Gravity response is inhibited in zigzag-1 (zig-1), a mutant allele of VTI11, which encodes a SNARE protein involved in vacuole fusion. zig-1 seedlings have fragmented vacuoles that fuse after treatment with wortmannin, an inhibitor of phospha...

In its natural habitat, the one-leaf plant Monophyllaea horsfieldii (Gesneriaceae) shows striking postural changes and dramatic loss of stability in response to intermittently occurring droughts. As the morphological, anatomical and biomechanical bases of these alterations are as yet unclear, we examined the influence of varying water contents on M. horsfieldii by conducting dehydration-rehydra...

The role of auxin and protons in the gravitropic response of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv Sungold) hypocotyl has been investigated. No physiological asymmetry in acid-growth capacity could be detected between the upper and lower surfaces of gravistimulated hypocotyls. These data imply that neutral buffers inhibit shoot gravitropism by preventing the establishment of a lateral proton g...

The influence of ethylene on growth in etiolated lupine (Lupinus albus L.) hypocotyls was studied in ethephon-treated plants. Ethephon reduced the length and increased the diameter of hypocotyls. At the end of the hypocotyl growth period (14 days), the fresh weight was reduced by 53%, and the dry weight was reduced by 16%. Thus, ethylene reduced water uptake in the tissues to a greater extent t...

Branching is an important trait of plant development regulated by environmental signals. Phytochromes in Arabidopsis mediate branching in response to the changes in the red light:far-red light ratio (R:FR), the mechanisms of which are still elusive. Here it is shown that overexpression of CONSTANS-LIKE 7 (COL7) results in an abundant branching phenotype which could be efficiently suppressed by ...