• Question: What made you so interested in your theory of why roots go down and shoots go up?

    Asked by 325bsmf44 to Rupesh on 10 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Rupesh Paudyal

      Rupesh Paudyal answered on 10 Jun 2016:

      Great question!

      One day in the lab I saw that the small molecule called TENin1 made plants grow in random directions, like, some roots were growing up and stem was growing down.

      Then I started investigating on this and found how TENin1 was doing this. The response to gravity in plants is controlled by how the plant hormone auxin is spread across the cells inside plant roots and stem.

      Under normal conditions, plant root tips has high amount of auxin and so it knows which way is down because tip is at the bottom but with TENin1 it changes the way auxin is spread in plant root and stem.

      A *fun* experiment to do at home:

      1. Grow a flowering pot plant at home.
      2. Once it’s about the size of your palm trip the pot over so the plant is lying on its side.
      3. Leave it for a couple of weeks
      4. The plant stem will start to bend upwards towards the ceiling/sky.

      Conclusion: Plants are clever!!!!

      BTW if you need to know how to grow your own plant or what plant to grow give me a shout.

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