Plant Hormones In Wisconsin Fast Plants

Gibberellins are one of the seven major classes of plant hormones. Wisconsin Fast Plants can possess genes which increase or decrease the amount of gibberellic acid synthesized as compared to other plants of the same species. To explore how gibberellins affect various types of Fast Plants, these plants were treated with different hormonal solutions and observations were recorded for nearly a week. More of the plants grew taller when exposed to gibberellic acid. However, there were variations in the ending average heights of the plants. While some genetic predispositions had influences on the height of the Fast Plants, the treatments with chemicals ultimately drove the lack or abundance of height relative to plants of the same phenotype. Specifically,

Plants use hormones to regulate growth and respond to stimuli such as light. Nearly every factor of plant development is influenced by hormones to some extent. There are several varieties of plant hormones, including auxins, cytokinins, ethylene, strigolactones, abscisic acid, jasmonates, brassinosteroids, and gibberellins (Campbell et al., 2015). Gibberellins are also known as gibberellic acid or GA3. Gibberellins are responsible for increasing stem length, fruit growth, and seed germination. This type of hormone is essential for developing plants because it triggers transition from young to adult leaf stage and allows the shoots, or sprouts from the plant, to flourish. Without GA3, plants would not be able to break dormancy. The hormone is also critical for internode elongation because it prompts cell division and expansion in any light condition. Therefore, plants treated with gibberellic acid should grow taller than those treated without it (Gupta and Chakrabarty, 2013). Wisconsin Fast Plants, or Brassica rapa, are model organisms which have been bred for over thirty years. They are closely related to broccoli, cabbage, and turnips. This plant has a life

Every day of observation, the liquid treatments were applied to the plants.. A spray bottle was used to administer gibberellic acid, Cycocel, or water to the plants. One bottle contained only water, another contained 100 parts per million of gibberellic acid, and the other contained a 1:100 dilution of Cycocel also known as B-9 solution. Two full squeezes were dispensed over each of the four sections of a occupied quadrant. The nozzles were sprayed into a small plastic tube to avoid cross-contamination with adjacent quadrants. The plants were kept under fluorescent light on a timed cycle where they were on for 16 hours of the day and off for the other