Hormonal balance in apical meristems of Scots pine shoots as a very early symptom of flower sex differentiation

Abstract

The investigations were conducted on the embryonic shoots which were taken at the stage just before the start of the elongation of the last year formed embryonic shoot; it means long time before male and female cone primordia initiation. The results point out to the existence of distinctive balance of auxins to gibberellins in apical meristems oi potentially female and male shoots for about a month before the initiation of new embryonic shoots. These results confirm our previous suggestions that femaleness and maleness in Scots pine is correlated with a high amount of auxins and gibberellins, respectively.