NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF CORRELATIVE HORMONAL SIGNALS IN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ANNUAL AND PERENNIAL PLANTS

Long distance correlative hormonal signals (HS) are decisive messengers in coordinating growth and development of plants and for this reason are important from a scientific as well as an agricultural/horticultural point of view. The quantitative analysis of these HS “in transport” is difficult and for various reasons results are presently not as reliable as e.g., for “extractable hormones”. Published results are therefore considerably less frequent. In recent years our team of scientists have examined such long distance HS (IAA, GAs, CKs, ACC, etc.) originating either in roots, shoot tips, leaves, and fruit and tried to relate them to various important physiological as well as horticultural processes. The complexity of signal interaction and the difficulty of their interpretation and manipulation limits, at present, their practical application. Providing a better understanding of how and where these signals act may, however, result in more reliable techniques.