Sensitivity to phytohormones determined by outer-inner polarity of higher plants: An overall model for phytohormone action

Abstract A generalized model of the higher plant body is proposed in order to assemble the discrete knowledge of the actions, and sites of biosynthesis, of phytohormones. In this model, we attempt to explain the differential sensitivities of different tissues. With this model most effects of plant hormones appear to be reasonable, and even expected. The model is based on a new anatomical and physiological classification of plant tissue. In higher plants the integration of an outer-inner polarity and an upper-lower polarity plays a major role in phytohormone behaviour. Plant tissues and organs which are derived from the cortex of paleophytes (the bud, the mesophyll of the leaf, the cortex of the stem, and the root cap) are classified as the outer pole of the plant. On the other hand, tissues and organs which are derived from the stele of paleophytes (the root, the stele of the shoot, and the vein of the leaf), are classified as the inner pole. It is suggested that tissue sensitivities to phytohormones are mainly determined by the outer-inner polarity. Phytohormones which are synthesized from one pole act on the other, whereas they exert either much less or no effect, or an inverse effect on their own pole. This is shown for both promoters and inhibitors of the phytohormones for both cortical and stelar vegetative tissues of plants.