| Abstract: | Lorences, E. P. and Zarra, I. 1987. Auxin-induced growth inhypocotyl segments of Pinus pinaster Aiton. Changes in molecularweight distribution of hemicellulosic polysaccharides.—J.exp. Bot. 38: 960–967. The changes in the molecular weightdistribution of water-soluble hemicelluloses and xyloglucanduring auxin-induced growth of Pinus pinaster Aiton hypocotylsections were investigated. IAA induced an increase in the relativeamount of a high molecular weight polysaccharide (MW  5 x 106)and a depolymerization of the xyloglucan present in the water-solublehemicelluloses extracted with 4% KOH. Moreover, the increasein the mean molecular weight distribution of total polysaccharidesand xyloglucan of the water-soluble hemicelluloses extractedwith 24% KOH was suppressed by auxin. We suggest that the decreasein the mass-average molecular weight of cell wall xyloglucanplays a critical role in the process responsible for the auxin-inducedcell wall extension in gymnosperm plants, as has been demonstratedfor monocot and dicot plants. Key words: Cell wall loosening, gymnosperm, xyloglucan |
