Apical dominance in the rhizome of Agropyron repens: the influence of humidity and light on the regenerative growth of isolated rhizomes

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon I. McIntyre

The influence of humidity and light on the regenerative growth of isolated five-node segments from rhizomes of Agropyron repens was investigated under controlled conditions. When the rhizomes were incubated in the dark at 20 ± 1 °C shoot growth at the apical node was significantly reduced by each 0.5% reduction in relative humidity between 100 and 98.5% and at 98.0% growth at all nodes was completely inhibited. The restriction of these effects to the apical end of the rhizome (nodes 1 and 2) was attributed to their interaction with the basipetal gradient of decreasing N concentration previously identified as one of the causal factors in the polarity of bud activity. Bud inhibition at a relative humidity of 98% was eliminated by supplying water through the basal end of the rhizome. This treatment also released the buds from the inhibition induced by the exposure of the rhizomes to light. Since the uptake of water by the rhizomes was also greater in the light than in the dark it was postulated that the light-induced inhibition of bud growth was due to a reduction in rhizome water potential mediated by an increase in the rate of transpiration.

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 1229-1235 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. Qureshi ◽  
G. I. McIntyre

When the buds on the rhizome of Agropyron repens were released from apical dominance either by increasing the nitrogen supply or by raising the humidity around the rhizome, their uptake of 14C-labelled assimilates from the parent shoot was significantly increased. While this effect was produced by each treatment when applied separately, the uptake of 14C by the buds was more than twice as great when both treatments were combined. The 14C level in the rhizome was also increased, this effect being greater and more consistent in response to the change in humidity than to the increased nitrogen supply. In the controls, uptake of the labelled assimilates was greatest by the bud at the apical node and decreased basipetally along the rhizome. This pattern was not correlated with bud size and probably resulted from a basipetal gradient of declining metabolic activity. Increasing the humidity around the rhizome altered this pattern, preferentially promoting the uptake of the label by the bud at the subapical node. To account for the stimulation of bud growth by high humidity when nitrogen was apparently the limiting factor, it is postulated that the increase in water potential of the bud may accelerate protein synthesis, thereby enhancing the bud's capacity to compete for the limiting nitrogen supply.


Weed Science ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 655-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon I. McIntyre ◽  
Andrew I. Hsiao

When buds on the rhizome of quackgrass [Agropyron repens(L.) Beauv.] were released from apical dominance either by increasing the nitrogen supply to the parent shoot (from 5.25 to 210 ppm) or by raising the humidity around the rhizome (from 55 to 100%), the growth response of the buds was closely correlated with their uptake of foliar-applied14C-labeled glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl] glycine]. The14C level in the buds, expressed on a dry-weight basis, was greatest in the youngest, most rapidly growing bud at the apical node and decreased in successively older buds along the rhizome. A similar gradient was shown by the14C content of the associated rhizome nodes. The high-humidity treatment also increased the total amount of14C that was translocated into the rhizome, whereas increasing the nitrogen supply, while promoting14C uptake by the buds, markedly reduced the amount in the rhizome nodes and in other parts of the plant. This nitrogen-induced reduction in translocation was associated with a reduction of about 30% in uptake of the herbicide by the treated leaves.


1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (7) ◽  
pp. 1427-1432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon I. McIntyre

A previous investigation of apical dominance in the rhizome of Agropyron repens showed that keeping the rhizome in a high humidity promoted the outgrowth of the lateral buds but strongly inhibited the growth of the rhizome apex. A study of these related responses demonstrated that the inhibition of apical growth was not prevented by excision of the lateral buds and was also induced when only the apex of the rhizome received the high humidity treatment. The necrotic lesions that developed in the arrested apices and the reduction of apical inhibition produced by various Ca treatments indicated that the inhibition of apical growth was caused by Ca deficiency. When the rhizome apex was exposed to low humidity, a localized high-humidity treatment of the lateral buds did not release the buds from apical dominance in low-N rhizomes but strongly promoted bud growth at a higher N level. When growth of the buds was induced at low humidity by increasing the N supply, the increase in bud weight was preceded by an increase in the water content of the bud when expressed on a dry weight basis. These results agree with those of previous investigations and suggest that the interacting effects of N and humidity on the water status of the buds may play a significant role in the mechanism of apical dominance.


2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 863-865 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eri Nakajima ◽  
Hiroshi Nakano ◽  
Kosumi Yamada ◽  
Hideyuki Shigemori ◽  
Koji Hasegawa

1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1189-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon I. McIntyre

When plants of Agropyron repens L. Beauv. are grown at a high nitrogen level (210 p.p.m. N) apical dominance in the rhizome is sufficiently reduced to permit the continued growth of the lateral buds. If, however, the rhizome is isolated from the parent shoot the dominance of the apex is markedly increased and lateral bud growth is strongly inhibited.Experiments with these isolated, high-nitrogen rhizomes showed that apical dominance could be significantly reduced either by increasing the length of the rhizome or by retarding the growth of the rhizome apex by exposing it to light. The growth potential of the lateral buds declined rapidly as the duration of their attachment to the rhizome apex was increased. This effect was associated with the translocation of carbohydrate to the rhizome apex and could be overcome by providing the isolated buds with a 2% sucrose solution. When buds were isolated from the rhizome apex before their growth potential was exhausted a marked increase in their carbohydrate content was apparent after 48 h. This increase was associated with their resumption of growth. Buds still attached to the apex could be released from inhibition by supplying sucrose solutions to the cut end of the rhizome.The results suggest that, under the experimental conditions, apical dominance was due primarily to competition for a limited carbohydrate supply.


1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 425 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Munns ◽  
RE Sharp

Hormones appear to be important in controlling plant growth in soils of low water potential, particularly in changing the root:shoot ratio as the soil dries or becomes saline, and in communicating soil conditions to the leaves. This review has necessarily focused on abscisic acid (ABA), as there is little information about the role of other hormones in controlling growth in dry or saline soils. ABA is partly responsible for the differential response of root and shoot growth to dry soils. In dry soil it maintains root growth and inhibits shoot growth. However, when applied to well-watered plants, it usually inhibits root and shoot growth, showing that plants in dry soil respond quite differently from well-watered plants. ABA affects the rate of cell expansion in plants in dry soils: it maintains cell expansion in roots and inhibits that in leaves. It may also affect the rate of cell production, but little is known about this. The role of ABA as a long-distance signal in controlling growth by root-to-shoot communication is unclear: the concentrations found in xylem sap can affect stomatal conductance, but seem too low to affect leaf expansion. Yet drought and salinity generally affect leaf expansion before they affect leaf conductance. A possible solution to this puzzle is that ABA is transported in xylem sap in a complexed form, or that another compound in xylem sap stimulates the synthesis or activity of ABA in leaves, or affects leaf expansion independently of ABA.


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