A research team with scientists from Versailles INRA, CNRS/ Toulouse University, Queensland University (Australia), and Wageningen University (the Netherlands) has just identified a new plant hormone that inhibits shoot branching in plants. Some ten years ago, the same teams from INRA and the University of Queensland demonstrated that, unlike other identified hormones, a mobile signal inhibited shoot branching by preventing the development of leaf axil buds.
Today the signal has been identified as a new hormone belonging to the family of strigolactones. Research results have just been published on line in the August 10, 2008 issue of Nature. The discovery that strigolactones control shoot branching can clear the way for applications in horticulture, forestry and agriculture where plant architecture and the degree of branching are major factors in production yield and quality.
One possible use of the natural compounds would be to modify plant architecture in crops. Unlike other plant hormones, the applications of strigolactones on aerial plant parts only affects their branching without disrupting the rest of plant development.
