Phototropism: Bending towards Enlightenment

Extract

Research on phototropism has had far-reaching consequences in the field of plant biology, from helping to refute the ancient misconception of plant insensitivity to the environment to the discovery of the plant hormone auxin and the identification of the phototropin photoreceptors. In this essay, we trace the major trends and ideas that shaped past shoot phototropism research and briefly summarize the current state of the field.

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PERCEPTIONS OF PHOTOTROPISM

For centuries, poets, philosophers, artists, and scientists have noted and studied the phototropic movement of plants. In one of the earliest depictions of plant phototropism, Venus, the ancient goddess of love, transforms Clytie, a water nymph, into a plant because of her infatuation with Apollo, the sun god. Associated with her metamorphosis into a green plant, Clytie turns and follows the movement of Apollo (Ovid et al., 1998). This tale of unrequited love is based on the assumption, developed by the early classical philosophers, that plants exhibit completely passive responses to the environment.