Gibberellins

Gibberellins (GAs) are plant hormones that regulate growth and influence various developmental processes, including stem elongation, germination, dormancy, flowering, sex expression, enzyme induction, and leaf and fruit senescence.

Gibberellin was first recognized in 1926 by a Japanese scientist, Eiichi Kurosawa, studying bakanae, the "foolish seedling" disease in rice. It was first isolated in 1935 by Teijiro Yabuta and Sumuki, from fungal strain (Gibberella fujikuroi) provided by Kurosawa. Yabuta named the isolate as gibberellin.

Interest in gibberellins outside Japan began after World War II. In the United States, the first research was undertaken by a unit at Camp Detrick in Maryland, via studying seedlings of the bean Vicia faba. In the United Kingdom, work on isolating new types of gibberellin was undertaken at Imperial Chemical Industries. Interest in gibberellins spread around the world as the potential for its use on various commercially important plants became more obvious. For example, research that started at the University of California, Davis in the mid-1960s led to its commercial use on Thompson seedless table grapes throughout California by 1962. A known gibberellin biosynthesis inhibitor is paclobutrazol (PBZ), which in turn inhibits growth and induces early fruitset as well as seedset.

All known gibberellins are diterpenoid acids that are synthesized by the terpenoid pathway in plastids and then modified in the endoplasmic reticulum and cytosol until they reach their biologically-active form. All gibberellins are derived via the ent-gibberellane skeleton, but are synthesised via ent-kaurene. The gibberellins are named GA1 through GAn in order of discovery. Gibberellic acid, which was the first gibberellin to be structurally characterized, is GA3.

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