Interorgan influences in seedling growth of chickpea revealed through selective organectomy

Selective organectomy performed on 7 day old seedlings of Cicer arietinum L. with persistent cotyledons resulted in the display of several correlative growth responses. Derooting, partial or complete, did not influence seedling growth. Decapitation or partial deshooting resulted in the loss of apical dominance with the growth ofa branch from the topmost available axillary bud only, whereas complete deshooting caused the development of cotyledonary axillary branches. Intriguingly, single decotyledonation in such seedlings resulted in almost a complete suppression of the bud growth in the axil of remaining intact cotyledon. The relative significance of retained cotyledons with mobilizable reserves vis a vis photosynthesizing leaves, for the seedling growth may be inferred to some extent by the fact that whereas the seedling growth was significantly reduced by decotyledonation, being proportional to the number of cotyledons excised, a partial or even complete defoliation had no effect on branch growth. To achieve brevity, clarity and precision of description of the status of modifications of seedlings made through selective organectomy, a Seedling Configuration Formula (SCF) has been proposed.