BIOL 114: The Effect of ABA on Arabidopsis thaliana growth and development

Due to an increase in climate change around the world, precipitation patterns are altered which leads to prolonged periods of drought. Studies have shown that abscisic acid, otherwise known as ABA, has increased the stress hormonal release and receptor performance of arabidopsis thaliana in experiments revolving around cross breeding. With ABA used to inhibit plant growth to prevent drought, we looked to see how arabidopsis thaliana would perform in these conditions in an absence of cross breeding. Additionally, we looked to discover if wild type and mutant type arabidopsis responded differently to the perceived drought. In order to achieve this, 64 pots of arabidopsis (32 wild types and 32 mutants) with four seedlings each were sprayed weekly with a concentration of ABA diluted in 95% ethanol while a control group of equal size was treated with just a concentration of 95% ethanol. Growth of plants was measured weekly and quantified by: leaf count per plant, plant diameter, and plant bolt height. The plants were grown for 10 weeks but treated and measured on three different occasions. There was no visible difference in the mutant type and wild type arabidopsis plants at the end of the 10 week period; however, there was a visible difference between the growth rates of arabidopsis between the control group and experimental group. The experimental group’s growth rate was stunted by the ABA solution more so than the control. This is relevant as it shows that the increased levels of ABA stress hormone presented to the plants did stunt their growth, regardless of a drought actually occurring. This data can lead to further research into the ever increasing presence of drought and how that may affect plant growth and development in the future.