Abstract
GIBBERELLINS are the most promising chemicals for controlling leaf expansion, but their effects on different plants differ for unexplained reasons. Thus, although dwarf bean and potato have the same endogenous gibberellin, probably A5 (ref. 1), they behave differently when sprayed with gibberellic acid (GA). Spraying whole plants increased the rate at which the leaves of both species grew initially, but whereas the primary leaves of dwarf bean stop growing sooner than leaves of unsprayed plants and are no larger when mature2, leaves of sprayed potato plants continue to grow and when mature are larger than on unsprayed plants3–5. The results of the experiment described here, which compares the effect of applying GA to the primary leaves and to the stems of dwarf bean, suggest that the different effects of GA on leaf growth depend on the fact that it moves less readily in dwarf bean stems than through potato stems.
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WHEELER, A., HUMPHRIES, E. Separation of the Effects of Gibberellic Acid on Leaf and Stem Growth of Dwarf French Bean. Nature 202, 616 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/202616a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/202616a0
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