A2 Lesson 1

Sensation
Perception of stimuli
In plants
There are genes in plants that are related to animal
genes involved in the nervous system
Sensation in plants relies on chemical messages
Stimuli affecting the plants :
1- Light
2- Gravity
3- Water
4- Temperature
5- Touch
6- Chemicals
NB different parts of the same plant respond differently
to the same stimulus
Response of shoot and root to light
Plants respond to a variety of stimuli by producing or
destroying chemical messages .
Many of the messages are plant hormones produced in
one area of the plant and transported around and have
their effects on cells any where in the plant .
Tropism
Plant responses to environmental cues
1

The main way plants respond is by growth

Steps : 1. Cell division
2. assimilation
3. cell expansion

Areas of cell division in plants : meristems

2

Meristems are just behind tip of the root and the shoot .
they are sensitive to chemical messages so cellulose
walls are easly stretched causing cell elongation and
expansion .
External factors regulating growth
1. Light : needed for photosynthesis
2. Day length : causes the plant to flower , fruits to be
formed , seeds to germinate , seeds dormancy and
leaf loss .
3. Gravity : roots grow downwards
4. Temperature : affect rate of enzyme reaction
Tropisms are growth responses in plants where the
direction of the growth response is determined by the
direction of the external stimulus .If a plant grows
towards a stimulus it said to be positive tropic
response.

Tropism means turn or change

1. Phototropism : growth response of a plant in
response to light direction . different parts of the
plant exhibit different reactions to light .
3

Stem
phototropic
phototropic

root

With illumination from all sides an even distribution of

auxins moves down from the shoot tip and causes
elongation of cells across the zone of elongation .
With illumination from one side , auxins move down
from the shoot tip towards the shaded side of the shoot
. Only those cells on the shaded side elongate and the
shoot bends towards the light .
The effector for the growth response is elongation .
This happens just below the tip of the shoot and is
controlled by the plant growth substance IAA (the first
auxin discovered).

Nervous system in
mammals
Electrochemical changes
giving an electric impulse .
Chemical neurotransmitters
used at most synapses.

Endocrine system in
mammals
Chemical hormones from
endocrine glands carried in
the blood plasma around the
circulatory system

Usally associated with short Can control long term

term changes as muscle
responses as growth and
contraction
sexual development .Some
are involved in
homeostatsis : control the
blood pressure . Some can
be relatively fast as effect of
Adrenaline in response to
stress
Response is very local and
Response might be
specific as muscle cell or
widespread or restricted to
gland .
specific target cells

Rapid acting

Slower acting

Tropisms in plant
Chemical growth
substances : auxin
diffusing from cell to
cell some may go in
the plant transport
system the phloem
Controls long term
growth responses :
cell elongation

Response may be
widespread but
normally restricted to
cells within a short
distance of the growth
substance being
released
Slower acting

Researchers of the US department of agriculture

showed that the red light (wave length 580 -660 nm) is
most effective in stimulating germination in lettuce
seeds while far red light (wave length 700- 730 nm )
inhibits germination

Plants flower and seeds germinate in response to

changes in day light . the photoreceptor involved is a
green blue pigment called : phytochrome . on
absorbing light (red) phytochrom converts from
inactive PR to the active PFR .

In the dark PFR slowly converts back to PR because it s

relatively unstable . It also changes to PR if exposed to far
red light .The active PFR may trigger a range of different
photoperiodic responses .
6

PFR is biologically active . Phytochromes enables plants

to respond to environmental cues such as day length .
Darkness is the environmental cue that affects
plant flowering ,
*PFR inhibits flowering
*Lack of PFR allows flowering
In long days plants the situation is reversed and build up
of PFR during daylight hours stimulate flowering. As the
two forms of phytochrome are almost always present , it
is the balance between them which is affected by varying
periods of light and dark and which in turn affects
flowering (photoperiodism).

Florigen is a plant hormone made by the plant in

response to the changing levels of phytochromes and
carried in the plant transport system to the flower buds
.The evidence include the following findings :

1.a) If the whole plant is kept in the dark apart from one
leaf which is exposed to appropriate periods of light and
dark . Flowering occurs as normal .
b)A plant kept in total darkness does not flower .
c)if the photoperiodically exposed leaf is removed
immediately after the stimulus , the plant does not flower
(it should be left at least for few hours after the stimulus
for the plant to flower ).
2.If two or more plants are grafted together and only one
exposed to
appropriate light patterns , all the
plants will flower .
3. in some species if a light induced leaf from one plant
is grafted into another plant , the new plant will flower .
Recently
Scientists has shown that , when a leaf is exposed to a
given amount of light and dark , a form of mRNA is
produced in the leaf linked with a gene associated with
flowering . (the FT gene or flowering Locus T )
Is it Florigen ?
It had been believed that a molecule like FTmRNA is a big
molecule that cannot leave the cell .Now it has been
demonstrated that such molecules as this mRNA can
move from cell to cell to the transport tissue through
plasmodesmata and that the FTmRNA travels to apex of
the shoot where other genes associated with flowering
are activated.
8

Questions
Q1) List the different environmental cues that elicit a
response in plants .Choose one stimulus and Explain
why is it important for the plant to respond to that
stimulus ?
Q2) Growth in animals stops at certain age . Meristems in
plants remain active for life . Why this difference is
important in the way organisms respond to stimuli .
Q3) Explain what is meant by a photoreceptor .
Q4) Explain why it is an advantage that shoots have
positive
phototropism and roots have negative
phototropism.
Q5) What effect does IAA have on cells .
Q6) Why is it an advantage for animals to have a nervous
system and an endocrine system .
Q7) What is the difference between tropic and trophic
.
End
of lesson
Study well
and good luck