* She received the young scientist award for the presentation of this paper at Annual meeting of Indian Society for Plant Physiology (30-12-1986 to 1-1-87) held at University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.
Serial sections of wheat primary leaf which were equal in length showed a decreasing pattern of fresh and dry wt., DNA, RNA and protein contents from younger to older section. Reverse pattern was observed for the related degradatory enzymes. Kinetic studies revealed that younger section showed maximum growth and DNA synthesis. Contrary to this, older sections revealed minimum growth but maximum expansion potential. This was supported by higher RNA and protein synthesis. Maximum response to NAA was observed in older section compared to younger one. Thus, it seems that while younger section had more number of smaller cells, less but bigger cells might be present in older section and action of NAA was sequential. The results are discussed in the light of increasing cell size during development and the endogenous auxin content.
