Gibberellins were first discovered in Japan when rice plants were suffering from bakane (the foolish seedling disease) caused by a fungus Gibberellafujikuroi.
a. Give two functions of this phytohormone.
b. Which property of Gibberellin caused foolish seedling disease in rice?
a) Two functions of the phytohormone (plant hormones that are responsible for signalling in plants and occur in small concentrations) Gibberellin are:
i) Gibberellins cause fruits to elongate and improve in its shape. It is also responsible to delay sensescence.
ii) Spraying sugarcane crop with gibberellins increases the length of the stem, thus increasing the sugar production that increases the yield by almost 20 tonnes per acre.
iii) GA3speeds up the malting process in brewing industry (GA3 is one of the kinds of gibberellins).
b) The property of Gibberellin that causes foolish seedling disease in rice is the elongation of internodes. E. Kurosawa reported the symptoms of the disease in uninfected rice seedlings when they were treated with gibberellic acid.