Recommend Plant Signaling & Behavior (PS&B) to your librarian for 2008. Download form here.
Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts!
PS&B is the official journal of the Society for Plant Neurobiology. Full membership ($60 annually) and student membership ($30 annually) include online access to the journal. Click here to join.
Email this page
Print this page
Reviews
The Physiological Function of Melatonin in Plants
Marino B. Arnao and Josefa Hernández-Ruiz
volume 1 | issue 3
may/june 2006Pages: 88 - 94
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.
Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine), a well-known animal hormone, was discovered in plants in 1995 but very little research into it has been carried out since. It is present in different parts of all plant species studied, including leaves, stems, roots, fruits and seeds. This brief review will attempt to provide an overview of melatonin (its discovery, presence and functions in different organisms, biosynthetic route, etc.) and to compile a practically complete bibliography on this compound in plants. The common biosynthetic pathways shared by the auxin, indole-3-acetic, and melatonin, which suggest a possible coordinated regulation in plants, are presented. More specifically, our knowledge to date of the role of melatonin in the vegetative and reproductive physiology of plants is presented in detail. The most interesting aspects for future physiological studies are presented.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.