ON THE COVER: It is known that inversion of the wild-type shoot by bending results in elongation of the axillary bud, being released from apical dominance. In this issue, Kitazawa et al. (pp. 891–900) report that agravitropic mutants of Japanese morning glory, weeping and weeping2, are defective in the bending-induced release from apical dominance while they elongate the axillary buds in response to decapitation. Decapitation, but not bending, treatment causes an increase in cytokinin level and a decrease in auxin response in the nodes of both agravitropic and wild-type plants. These findings demonstrate that the bending-induced elongation of axillary buds is gravity regulated and controlled by a mechanism different from that which induces decapitation. The red-flowered morning glory with narrow leaves and petals is a traditional ornamental strain harboring a maple-willow mutation in addition to a weeping mutation. The weeping2 mutation was first identified from a white-flowered strain shown in the background.
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