Androniki C. Bibi, Derrick M. Oosterhuis, and Evangelos D. Gonias. University of Arkansas, 1366 W. Altheimer Dr., Fayetteville, AR 72704
Plant growth substances play a controlling role in the process of reproduction. Polyamines are substances which are naturally present in plants and act as promoters of growth. They are involved in cellular multiplication and also in cellular differentiation during organogenesis, and they also play an important role at the time of flowering, pollination and early fruit development. Spermidine (Spd), spermine (Spm) and their procersor putrescine (Put) are the most common polyamines with widespread occurrence in plants. Generally, it appears that polyamines are growth regulators indispensable to plants at the time of flowering, as well as during early fruit development. In addition to naturally occurring polyamines in plants, the plant growth regulator BM86 contains oligosaccharides that are reported to regulate the synthesis of endogenic polyamines in order to stimulate seed production and fruit growth. This benefit may enhance yield under extreme environmental conditions when endogenous polyamines content is reduced. There are no reports on polyamine content in cotton ovaries. Therefore our first objective was to investigate how the polyamines are distributed along the cotton plant and secondly to determine the effect of the plant growth regulator BM86 on polyamines and seed set efficiency of cotton.
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