Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From Facts and False Routes: How Plant Hormone Research Developed

  • Published:
Journal of Plant Growth Regulation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Our understanding of how plant hormones work has tremendously increased over the last decades. However, such progress was not possible without those who laid the foundation of the work which was sometimes much more tedious in early days than today. Therefore, we thought it timely to follow-up on historical aspects of plant hormone research. The development in the field of auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, abscisic acid, jasmonates, brassinosteroids, and ethylene are accompanied with personal recollections. Plant hormones cannot go without plant growth regulators which have been developed for commercial reasons, but are also used in many cases nowadays as tools to investigate a specific role of a hormone in planta. This issue is also hopefully a useful collection for those scientists who want to get an overview of how their “favorite hormone” started.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bakshi A, Shemansky JM, Chang C, Binder B (2015) History of research on the plant hormone ethylene. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9522-9

  • Clouse S (2015) A history of brassinosteroid research from 1970 - 2005: Thirty-five years of phytochemistry, physiology, genes and mutants. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9540-7

  • Dörffling K (2015) The discovery of abscisic acid—a retrospect. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9525-6

  • Grove MD, Spencer GF, Rohwedder WK, Mandava NB, Worley JF, Warthen JD, Steffens GL, Flippen-Anderson JL, Cook JC (1979) Brassinolide, a plant growth-promoting steroid isolated from Brassica napus pollen. Nature 281:216–217

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hedden P, Sponsel V (2015) A century of gibberellin research. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9546-1

  • Kaminek M (2015) Tracking the story of cytokinin research. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9543-4

  • Lüthen H (2015) What we can learn from old auxinology. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9527-4

  • Mitchell JW, Mandava NB, Worley JF, Plimmer JR, Smith MV (1970) Brassins: a new family of plant hormones from rape pollen. Nature 225:1065–1066

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neljubow D (1901) Über die horizontale Nutation der Stengel von Pisum sativum und einiger anderer Pflanzen. Ber Bot Zentralbl 10:128–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Rademacher W (2015) Plant growth regulators – backgrounds and uses in plant production. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9541-6

  • Tivendale ND, Cohen JD (2015) Analytical history of auxin. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9519-4

  • Vaňková R, Petrášek J, Zažímalová E, Kamínek M, Motyka V, Ludwig-Müller J (2014) Auxins and Cytokinins in Plant Development … and Interactions with Other Phytohormones 2014. J Plant Growth Regul 33:709–714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasternack C (2015) How jasmonates earned their laurels - past and present. J Plant Growth Regul 34. doi:10.1007/s00344-015-9526-5

  • Wildman S (1997) The auxin-A, B enigma: scientific fraud or scientific ineptitude? Plant Growth Regul 22:37–68

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Botanik, Technische Universität Dresden, Zellescher Weg 22, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Jutta Ludwig-Müller

  2. Biozentrum Klein Flottbek, Universität Hamburg, Ohnhorststr. 18, 22609, Hamburg, Germany

    Hartwig Lüthen

Authors
  1. Jutta Ludwig-Müller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hartwig Lüthen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jutta Ludwig-Müller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ludwig-Müller, J., Lüthen, H. From Facts and False Routes: How Plant Hormone Research Developed. J Plant Growth Regul 34, 697–701 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-015-9544-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-015-9544-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation