Impact of plant growth regulators in propagation of fruit crops: A review

Abstract

Plant growth regulator or phytohormone may be defined as an organic substance produced naturally in plants, controlling growth and other functions at a site remote from its place of production in minimal quantities. Plant growth regulators include auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, growth retardants and growth inhibitors. Apart from it, they also regulate expression of intrinsic genetic potential of plants. Control of genetic expression has been demonstrated for the phytohormones at both transcriptional and translational levels. The use of growth regulators has become an important component of agro-technical procedures for most of the cultivated plants and especially for fruit trees. So far in fruit crops, plant growth regulators were widely used in vegetative propagation viz., cuttings, air layering and invitro propagation etc. and also to control fruit drop and to improve the quality of fruit. It is familiar that most of the fruits are single seeded and trees raised through sexual means has long pre-bearing age, to overcome those constrains vegetative propagation is preferred in most of the fruit crops. In this review, we focus on role of plant growth regulators in asexual propagation of fruit crops.