Growth hormone regulation and its role in plants development

Plant growth substances are the organic substances synthesized by the plant that regulate, retard or modify plant physiological activities. They can move within the plant from the site of synthesis to the site of action. Growth regulating chemicals that have positive influence on major agronomic crops are of immense value. These growth regulators are mainly important for preventing lodging in cereals, preventing pre-harvest sprouting, fruit drop, synchronizing maturity to facilitate mechanical harvest, hastening maturity to decrease turnover time, reducing labour requirements. Studies conducted on major grain crops, such as corn, soybean, wheat and rice have identified material capable of altering individual agronomic characteristics like lodging, plant height, seed number and maturity. Commercial application of plant hormone have been limited to the use of gibbrellic acid, Indole acetic acid and cytokinins. Crop performance have been shown to increase significantly with the application of these growth regulator.