The peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) produces flowers aerially, but buries the
recently fertilized ovules into the soil, where fruit and seed development
occur. The young seeds are carried down into the soil at the tip of a speci
alized organ called the gynophore. Although the gynophore has a typical sho
ot anatomy, it responds positively to gravity like a root. In this study, w
e explore the role of the plant growth regulator indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)
in the growth and the gravitropic response of the peanut gynophore. With a
n immunolocalization technique using an IAA monoclonal antibody, we localiz
ed IAA within the tissues of vertically oriented and gravistimulated gynoph
ores. We found that in vertically oriented gynophores, IAA labeling occurs
in the periphery of the gynophore, in the entire cortex and epidermis. With
in 20 min of horizontal reorientation, the IAA signal gradually increases i
n the upper cortex/epidermis and diminishes in the lower cortex/epidermis.
At 1.5 h after gravistimulation, all of the IAA immunolocalization signal i
s detected in the upper cortex and epidermis - none is detected in the lowe
r side. Growth rate measurements also indicate that after 1-2 h of reorient
ation, the growth rate maximum on the upper side corresponds temporally and
spatially to the growth rate minimum on the lower side. Experiments using
radioactively labeled IAA corroborate an upper-side redistribution of this
hormone upon horizontal reorientation. These results are analyzed with resp
ect to the current theories of plant gravitropic response, and a model for
a possible gravity-induced IAA redistribution from the lower to the upper s
ide of the peanut gynophore is proposed.