Question

Discuss the role of plant hormones in agriculture.

Answer 1

Plant hormones promote the production of other hormones and in conjunction with cytokinins, they control the growth of stems, roots, and fruits, and convert stems into flowers. Auxins were the first class of growth regulators discovered. They affect cell elongation by altering cell wall plasticity. We should technically call these as 'plant growth regulators' PGRs here instead of hormones because some of these (NAA, 2-4, D) are purely artificial and synthetic. Auxins like indolebutyric acid (IBA) are used for inducing rooting of cuttings in vegetative propagation.