Phycomyces: An Increase in Mechanical Extensibility during the Avoidance Growth Response.
The sporangiophore of Phycomyces shows a transient response to a double barrier, the avoidance growth response. Tensile tests conducted on the stage IV sporangiophore demonstrate that an increase in mechanical extensibility occurs about a minute after a double barrier stimulus. This change in mechanical extensibility is similar to the one that occurs after a light stimulus. We have concluded that the avoidance stimulus occurs somewhere on the same pathway between the photoreceptor mechanism and the final growth response.
Ortega
J K
JK
Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309.