Lecture 12 Flashcards
What is the importance of light?
Plants use it to measure time of day/year so they can adjust their growth and acclimate to the environment
Define light quantity/light intensity
The number of photons incident upon a surface
Define light quality. What is its importance?
The integrated colour composition of photons incident upon a leaf
It is used to tell a plant where it resides within a canopy
What light quality does the shade have? The open air?
Green
Dynamic due to sunflecks
Blue
How does day light vary depending on latitude?
The closer to the equator (in the tropics) the less variation bw seasons (sun all around)
How does daylight work as a developmental que? What types of plants does it give rise to? (2) At what levels can Pr/Pfr be found and what do they promote?
Short day plants: short days or long periods of darkness initiate developmental events (triggered when daylight is shorter than its threshold)
- flowering time: late summer to autumn
- Pfr degrades to Pr (weak Pfr signal to wreak to suppress flowering = plant flowers)
Long day plants: long days beyond their trigger threshold signal developmental events
- flowering time: late spring to early summer
- high Pfr pool (strong to promote flowering)
Define photosynthetic pigments (2)
Carotenoids and chlorophylls
Name the 3 types of light receptors and their associated colour
Cryptochromes (blue), Phototropins (blue), Phytochromes (red/green)
What are the two types of phytochrome and which is inactive? What light must it be exposed to for conversion?
Pr and Pfr
Pr is synthesized in the dark and inactive
Pr -> Pfr: orange/red
Pfr -> Pr: far-red
What is the function of the phytochrome? (5)
Regulate seed germination Promote de-etiolation Trigger greening in seedlings Inhibit internode elongation Regulate photoperiodic responses
What are photoperiod responses? (3)
Inhibit flowering in short day plants
Promote flowering in long day plants
Que bud break (spring) and dormancy (fall)
Germination controls of a dormant seed/bud:
Dormant seed: temperature & moisture cue -> potentiated seed -> daylight cue -> germination
Dormant bud: daylight cue -> potentiated bud -> temperature & moisture cue -> bud break
During the winter/spring, which phytochrome pool is bigger? Which light is abundant?
WINTER: large Pr (inactive) pool
- less red light present = longer nights
- have more time to revert back from Pfr
SPRING: large Pfr (active) pool
- more red light present = shorter nights
- have less time to revert back from Pfr
Environmental conditions that regulate germination (3)
Daylight (decide if season is OK for germination)
Light quantity (decide whether are too deep in the soil)
Light quality (deduce where plant is (under canopy or open field))
What is etiolation? What does it cause?
Etiolation is the process of a plant growing in a lack of light causing a weak, long stem, large distance bw internodes, pale colour, smaller leaves