Probing hormone action in developing seeds by ABA-deficient and -insensitive mutants

  • C. M. Karssen
  • L. C. Van Loon
Chapter
Part of the Current Plant Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture book series (PSBA, volume 13)

Abstract

Exogenous application of plant growth regulators, combined with determination of endogenous hormone contents, has provided circumstantial evidence for various roles of ABA in plants. Mutant plants deficient in ABA synthesis or showing reduced sensitivity to its presence offer a direct test of these assumptions. The main benefit of mutants for the physiological analysis of hormone action is that they do not suffer from artefacts occurring when hormone synthesis is inhibited by chemical means or upon isolation of plant parts. Thus, studies of ABA mutants validated the role of ABA in regulating stomatal aperture and in inducing seed dormancy but negated, for instance, the proposed action of ABA in gravitropism. Deficient mutants have also contributed extensively to the clarification of the biosynthetic pathways of ABA. Recently, the physiological analysis of ABA mutants has been extended to the biochemical and molecular level, shedding light on the mechanism of action of the hormone. Since recent studies with ABA mutants were focused mainly on the role of ABA in developing seeds this chapter will be restricted to progress in that area of research.

Keywords

Abscisic Acid Seed Development Desiccation Tolerance Late Embryogenesis Wild Type Seed 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1992

Authors and Affiliations

  • C. M. Karssen
    • 1
  • L. C. Van Loon
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Plant PhysiologyAgricultural University WageningenWageningenNetherlands

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