Plant Hormone Lab

Winson Zheng, Vinh Bui, Arlan Stutler

Activity 1:
Three pots containing two bean plants in each were used for this experiment. Each pot is
labeled with a different letter which corresponds to a certain variable to be tested on. The pot
labeled A had 2cm of the terminal shoot tip removed and a small amount of lanolin was swabbed
onto the tip of the cut surface. The pot labeled B was done in a similar fashion where the 2cm of
the terminal shoot was cut off and had lanolin applied to the cut portion except that the lanolin
contained some IAA paste. Pot C was used as a control group and nothing was done to it. The
plants showed no change after day 1, day 3 resulted in a slight paling of the leaves but the
greatest amount of change was observed one week from the start. Pot A had small lateral shoots
beginning to emerge at the sides and lateral meristems, there was no growth at the cut tip where
lanolin was applied. Pot B also exhibited this new growth pattern except that the new lateral
shoots were more prominent and developed as well as having leaves on the shoots compared to
the tiny ones observed in Pot A. No new growth of Pot C was observed; it remained unchanged
throughout the duration of this experiment. Although different growth rates were observed for
each individual pot, they all exhibited an angling and slight paling of the leaves. When the
experiment first began, the bean plants grew straight and the leaves faced upward, after about a
week into the experiment all three of the plants began to have a bit of slant and the leaves and
branches no longer faced upward but to the sides instead at an approximate 90 degree angle
change.
Activity 2:
2 pots containing 4 bean plants in each were used for this experiment. Each of the plants
were labeled with letters: A, B, C, and D. The bean plant A had its top 2cm of the shoot tip cut
off and lanolin was applied to the cut off tips surface. The bean plant B had 2cm cut off the
terminal part of the shoot tip and a small amount of lanolin containing IAA paste was applied to
the cut surface. Plant C had some of its leaves removed and the terminal 2cm of the tip was
covered completely with aluminum foil. Plant D was used as a control for this experiment and
had nothing done to it. The plants were placed upright under a lamp as a light source for a total
duration of 7 days. The following table contains the results of the plants growth in height in 7
days.
Plant
Plant A
Plant B
Plant C
Plant D

Height in cm (4/28)
12 cm
10 cm
6 cm
11 cm

Height in cm (5/5)
12 cm
10 cm
6 cm
17 cm

Plant A exhibited little to no plant growth but instead grew lateral meristems from the area where
it was cut so the plant began to grow from the sides of the nodes. Plant B was a surprise: it
deteriorated and withered despite what the IAA was expected to do to help improve growth, the
cause of Plant Bs condition is not exactly known but perhaps that particular plant did not
transition well to artificial light, or a root problem. Plant C which was covered in tin foil had no
growth vertically or horizontally but instead stayed the same from when the experiment started,
having the foil on it probably was not able to produce enough energy for growth but it was
enough to sustain itself. Plant D which was the control unit of this showed a good amount of
growth at about a 6 cm increase in height since the experiment begun.
Activity 3:
The purpose of this experiment is to observe the effects of gibberellic acid on the
development of the bean plants. Two well-watered bean plants are the objects in this experiment.
One plant is labeled C, which means control, and the other is labeled as GA, which stands for
gibberellic acid. Gibberellic acid will be added on to the GA plants stem tip. Both plants are
measured before the experiment, which shows that the control is about 4.5 inches high and the
GA plant is 4.75 inches. In order to determine the effect of GA on the stem tip, the control or
normal growing bean tree needs to be used for comparison. After 2 days, I observed that the GA
plant did not grow as well as the control. The tip, which was covered by gibberellic acid, did not
develop much even though they have been watered well with the same amount of water as the
control plant. Both plants also got the same amount of sunlight photosynthesis, because they
were both placed on the same growth rack. After one week, the measurement between them was
so different, showing that the control was 12.5 inches and the GA plant was 6.5 inches. The
measurement was taken from the cotyledon to the terminal bud, as shown in the following table:

Plant
C
GA

Initial height (inch)

4.5
4.75

Result height (inch)

12.5
6.5

Additionally, I observed that the GA plants apical meristem was not really developed,
while the control grew really fast from the tendril with a remarkable difference in height in
comparison with the GA plant. According to the hormones function, gibberellic acid stimulates
stem elongation, so it should stimulate the growth of the GA plant in this case, instead of having
a lower height measurement than the control. My assumption is the gibberellic acid somehow
accidentally dropped into the soil without our notice or it might have dropped while placed under
the growth rack. This accident might have caused the root not to grow very well and affected the
development of the shoot due to the lack of water and mineral absorption. Another possibility is
that the high concentration of gibberellic acid caused the apical meristem not to function well,
because most hormones work best in small concentrations.

Activity 4:
The purpose of this experiment is to observe the effects of different hormones on seed
germination. This experiment involves 3 agar plates with one plain, one containing 0.01%
abscisic acid (ABA), and the last one containing 0.1% gibberellic acid (GA). Each plate has 10
seeds that are gently pressed until embedded in the agar. After one week, my observations show
that the plain agar has the best seed germination in quantity and quality. Also, it has a clear agar
layer, so one can see the root, and the leaves are also grown and healthy. There is a little black
dot on the plate, which might be mold. The GA plate has some seeds germinated while others
dont. It has a white, cloudy agar layer that makes it really hard to see the root and seed
germination, and there many black dots or mold on the plate with no leaves or sign of healthy
growing bean plant. The ABA plate has no germination at all, and it looks like the original plate
with no change at all after one week. According to the hormone function, gibberellic acid
stimulates seed germination, so the bean seeds should have developed well in this experiment
instead of the opposite result described above. My group has followed closely to the lab
instruction, but there is no known possible reason for this failure result. Abscisic acid inhibits
early germination, which means this hormone inhibits the seed from germinating until they are
embedded into the right condition and environment. Based on the observations, I assume that the
agar is not a good environment for the bean seeds to grow and so, ABA inhibits these seeds from
germination. The seeds in the plain agar give a predictable result that the seed will germinate
well after one week. This plain agar plate acts as the control object for the other two plates for
comparison.
Activity 5:
The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effects of gibberellic acid on seed
germination by measuring the days-to-germination of seeds grown in plain agar and in agar
impregnated with gibberellic acid; to this end, two lima bean seeds were planted (using forceps)
on plates containing plain nutrient-rich agar and agar containing 0.1% gibberellic acid,
respectively. The agar plates were placed under the grow light set up for activity two until its
removal, at which point they were subject to the lighting of the classroom. The seeds were
examined visually for signs of germination, our hypothesis being that, as gibberellic acid
promotes germination and can even be used to trigger germination in dormant seeds, the seed in
the gibberellic acid medium would germinate several days before the control seed in the plain
medium.
In practice, the control seed germinated three days after being planted and the treated
seed never germinated at all. Given that our goal was to time the difference between germination
times and that one seed failed to germinate, we were unable to collect the data we intended;
however, these results mirror and support our observations from Activity 4that seeds being
grown on plain agar germinate more reliably after one week than seeds in 0.1% gibberellic acid

agar, suggesting that 0.1% gibberellic acid is a sufficient concentration to be, to an extent, toxic
or otherwise damaging to the seeds.