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Abscission

Abscission (from Latin ab, "away", and scindere, "to cut'") is the
shedding of various parts of an organism, such as a plant dropping a
leaf, fruit, flower, or seed. In zoology, abscission is the intentional
shedding of a body part, such as the shedding of a claw, husk, or the
autotomy of a tail to evade a predator. In mycology, it is the
liberation of a fungal spore. In cell biology, abscission refers to the
separation of two daughter cells at the completion ofcytokinesis.

Contents
In plants
Leaf litter on the forest floor. Annual autumn leaf
Function
drop in temperate zones is caused by the
Process
abscission of the mature leaves from the growth
Resorption
season in response to the approach of cold winter
Protective layer formation
weather.
Detachment
Mechanisms
Structural
Lack of chlorophyll as a trigger
Chemical
Hormonal

In animals
See also
References
External links

In plants

Function
A plant will abscise a part either to discard a member that is no longer necessary,
such as a leaf during autumn, or a flower following fertilisation, or for the purposes
of reproduction. Most deciduous plants drop their leaves by abscission before
winter, whereas evergreen plants continuously abscise their leaves. Another form of
abscission is fruit drop, when a plant abscises fruit while still immature, in order to
conserve resources needed to bring the remaining fruit to maturity. If a leaf is
damaged, a plant may also abscise it to conserve water or photosynthetic efficiency,
depending on the 'costs' to the plant as a whole. The abscission layer is a greenish-
Abscission of the hypanthium during
grayish color. development of a nectarine fruit

Abscission can also occur in premature leaves as a means of plant defense.


Premature leaf abscission has been shown to occur in response to infestation by gall aphids. By abscising leaves that have been made
host to aphid galls, plants have been shown to massively diminish the pest population, as 98% of aphids in abscised galls died. The
abscission is selective, and the chance of dropping leaves increases as the number of galls increase. A leaf with three or more galls
[1]
was four times more likely to abscise than a leaf with one, and 20 times as likely to be dropped as a leaf without any galls.

Process
Abscission occurs in a series of three events: 1) resorption, 2) protective layer formation, and 3) detachment.[2] Steps 2 and 3 may
occur in either order depending on the species.[2]

Resorption
Resorption involves degrading chlorophyll to extract the majority of its nutrients.[3] Nitrogen is found in chlorophyll and is often a
limiting nutrient for plants because plants need large quantities of N to form amino acids, nucleic acids, proteins, and certain plant
hormones.[4] Once nitrogen and other nutrients have been extracted from chlorophyll, the nutrients will travel to other tissues of the
plant.[3] Resorption is what causes leaves in the fall to change colors.[3] Carotenoids in the leaves are slower to degrade than
[3]
chlorophyll, so autumn leaves appear yellow and orange.

Protective layer formation


Cells under the abscission zone divide and form a layer of cork cells.[5] Situated on both sides of the abscission zone are layers of
parenchyma cells, which produce and inject suberin and lignin under the abscission zone into the new layer of cork cells.[5] Suberin
gan is detached.[5]
and lignin create a durable and waterproof layer for the plant once the or

Detachment
This step can occur in a variety of ways depending on the species but always occurs at the abscission zone.[6] Detachment can occur
when layers of parenchyma cells secrete cell wallenzymes to self-digest the middle lamella, which holds the cell walls together at the
abscission zone.[6] This causes the cells of the abscission zone to break apart and the leaf or other plant part to fall off.[6] Another
way detachment occurs is through imbibition of water.[6] The plant cells at the abscission zone will take in a large amount of water,
swell, and eventually burst, making the organ fall off.[6] Once detached, the protective layer of cork will be exposed.
[2]

Mechanisms

Structural
In deciduous trees, an abscission zone, also called a separation zone, is formed at the base of the petiole. It is composed of a top layer
that has cells with weak walls, and a bottom layer that expands in the autumn, breaking the weak walls of the cells in the top layer.
This allows the leaf to be shed.

Lack of chlorophyll as a trigger


The reduction of chlorophyll production in leaves due to decreased sunlight in the autumn explains why some leaves turn yellow.
However, the yellow color can attract aphids, so some trees turn the leaves red instead by injecting a bright pigment.[7] The loss of
chlorophyll may also contribute to the abscission process.

Chemical
A variety of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated by plants during times of stress (biotic and abiotic) including UV light,
cool temperatures, excessive light, pathogens, parasites, and high salinity. The presence and continuous production of these ROS
causes disruption in the homeostasis of the cellular components, leading to metabolic dysfunction and expression of cell wall-
degrading enzymes (WDEs).[8]Development
Hormonal
While researchers originally believedabscisic acid to be the hormone that stimulates
abscission (for which the hormone was named), it was later proven that it does not
play a primary role. In fact, auxin, a plant hormone, and ethylene have been
implicated as prominent regulators of abscission signaling. The two compounds
work in a synergistic fashion: As the auxin levels decrease, the flux of auxin to the
abscission zone is reduced. Exhaustion of auxin makes the abscission zone sensitive
to ethylene. When the plant is then exposed to ethylene, gene expression of cell
wall-degrading enzymes such as cellulase and polygalacturonase are activated.
Streptocarpus leaf showing
However, this is not to say that ethylene directly activates WDE gene expression, abscission line in response to
because the elements responsible for detecting ethylene have not been found in the reduced day length
gene’s promoter region.[8] Dwindling auxin levels have also been implicated in
autumn-leaf color change.

In animals

See also
Marcescence, the retention of normally shed plant parts

References
1. Williams, A.G., & T.G. Whitham (1986). Premature leaf abscission: an inducedplant defense against gall aphids.
Ecology, 67(6), 1619-1627.
2. Addicott, F.T. 1982. Abscission. University of California Press, London, England.
3. Keskitalo, J., G. Bergguist, P. Gardestrom, and S. Jansson. 2005. A Cellular T
imetable of Autumn Senescence. Plant
Phys. 139 : 1635-1648.
4. Hopkins, W.G. and N.P.A. Huner. 2009. Introduction to Plant Physiology
. Fourth edition. Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
5. Kozlowski, T.T. 1973. Shedding of Plant Parts. Academic Press, New o
Yrk, NY.
6. Solomon, E.P., L.R. Berg., and D.W. Martin. 2011. Biology. Ninth edition, Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA.
7. Highfield, Roger (22 Sep 2008)."Why leaves fall off trees is discovered" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scienc
e-news/3352225/Why-leaves-fall-off-trees-is-discovered.html). Telegraph.co.uk. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved
1 Nov 2009.
8. Sakamoto, M., I. Munemura, R. Tomita, & K. Kobayashi (2008). Reactive oxygen species in leaf abscission
signaling. Plant Signal Behavior, 3(11), 1014-1015.

External links
Absission layer microscopy

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