Synthetic plant growth regulators

Abstract

This chapter focuses on synthetic plant growth regulators and discusses their effects on the yield of economic crops. Efforts to optimize crop yields are directed primarily to improved cultivation techniques, adequate supplies of nutrients and water, selection and breeding of more favorable plant strains, hybridization, and protection from competing weeds as well as from insect pests and from phytopathogenic fungi. However, to approach the maximal crop yield potential, it is also necessary to overcome the limitations on yield caused by the natural growth regulatory systems. The metabolic reactions in plants are controlled both by the supply and conversion of nutrients and by their endogenous (internally derived) hormonal pattern. The main groups of natural plant hormones are auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, abscisins, and ethylene. An understanding of the mode of action of plant bioregulators on the molecular level requires the identification of the receptor site for each regulator, as well as the elucidation of the subsequent reactions. The chapter concludes that plant growth regulators may be considered as a new generation of agrochemicals—after fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. © 1990 Academic Press Inc.