Phytochrome and hormonal control of expansion and greening of etiolated wheat leaves

Abstract

Unrolling of etiolated wheat leaf segments is stimulated by short periods of exposure to red light. Both gibberellic acid and kinetin will stimulate unrolling in the dark, whereas abscisic acid (ABA) inhibits the unrolling response to these two hormones and to red light. Exposure to 5 minutes of red light leads to a rapid increase in endogenous gibberellin levels in etiolated wheat leaves, and this increase is followed by a rapid decline. Pre-treatment with ABA inhibits the increase in gibberellin levels in response to red light, but the ihibitory effect of ABA on unrolling cannot be ascribed only to its effect on gibberellin levels. Pre-treatment with red light reduces the lag-phase in chlorophyll development when wheat leaf segments are subsequently exposed to white light; the effect of red light may be replaced by pre-treatment with kinetin, but gibberellic acid is relatively ineffective in this respect.