Gibberellins

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of plant hormones that promote growth and developmental processes, including seed germination and stem elongation, through cell division and expansion
2. Essential growth regulators in plants that stimulate various physiological responses, such as flowering and fruit development, and influence processes like leaf expansion
3. Plant growth substances that play a crucial role in regulating processes like growth, development, and reproduction by stimulating cellular activities and influencing gene expression

Etymology: In 1926, the Japanese plant pathologist Eiichi Kurosawa was studying bakanae, or "foolish seedling" disease, which made rice plants grow unnaturally tall and spindly before they often collapsed. He traced the cause to a fungus, and an extract from the fungus alone produced the same overgrowth in healthy seedlings. The fungus was named Gibberella fujikuroi, using the Latin "gibber," meaning hump. In 1938, Japanese chemists Teijiro Yabuta and Yusuke Sumiki isolated the active compound and called it gibberellin, following the chemical convention of ending names of substances in "-in." Researchers later found that the fungus and plants produce many related compounds, so the name came to cover a whole family, which is why the plural form is used today.