Kinetics of polar auxin transport

Abstract

The movement of auxin in the basipetal and acropetal directions is compared for 4 types of tissue. It is observed that the transport may proceed in either a linear or a non-linear manner with time. The polarity of transport through any given type of tissue increases exponentially with increasing lengths of tissue traversed, suggesting that the polarity of transport is developed as a consequence of the repeated passage through cells. Using the mathematical model of Leopold and Hall, the extent of polarity for individual cells is estimated, and a very small polarity of individual cells is found to be capable of accounting for the marked polarity of whole tissues. It is suggested that transport polarity may be functionally a property of the multicellular structure, being amplified from very small differences in activities at the 2 ends of individual cells.