Plant Physiology - Lecture Notes - O. M. Tarnopilska 2019

1. Fundamentals of Plant Physiology
1.5 History of the Development of Plant Physiology as a Science

1.5.1 Main periods in The Development of Plant Physiology

The Current state of plant physiology is the result of over 200 years of development. Plant physiology originated in the 17th and 18th centuries as a branch of botany. The scientific approach to plant physiology was pioneered by Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), who conducted the first quantitative vegetation experiment to study plant Nutrition pathways. Based on his experiments, he erroneously concluded that Water was the sole nutrient medium for plants. It was only later that the vital roles of soil and air as sources of plant nutrition were established. It is no exaggeration to state that plant physiology began its existence as an independent branch of botany precisely as the science of nutrition.

Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694), one of the founders of microscopic plant anatomy, combined his anatomical discoveries of specific microstructures with their Functions, which proved critically important for the future of plant physiology.

In 1727, the English botanist and chemist Stephen Hales suggested in his book Vegetable Staticks that plants might draw nourishment from the air via their leaves. He is undoubtedly regarded as one of the founding figures of plant physiology—a discipline that took shape much later, between 1771 and 1782, when Joseph Priestley, Jan Ingenhousz, and Jean Senebier discovered the components responsible for the aerial nutrition of plants. Later, Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure (1767–1845) used precise chemical analysis to demonstrate the involvement of water in aerial nutrition. Thus, METABOLISM/2.html">THE CONCEPT OF the photosynthetic function of plants gradually emerged, although the term "Photosynthesis" itself was coined by Wilhelm Pfeffer only in 1887. Following the discovery of photosynthesis, along with the laws of conservation of matter and energy, plant physiology increasingly focused on the atmospheric environment and sunlight as the primary sources of matter and energy for green plants.

However, plant physiology finally separated from botany as an independent scientific field in 1800, when Jean Senebier (1742–1803) introduced the term "plant physiology" and authored the first textbook on the subject, outlining the essence, Methods, and tasks of this science. In tsarist Russia, plant physiology was slow to emerge as an independent discipline, and it was only with the new university statute of 1863 that departments of plant physiology were established. The first Russian botanist and physiologist is considered to be Sergei Alexandrovich Rachinsky (1833–1902), a professor in the Department of Plant Physiology at Moscow University, where Klimiment Timiryazev (1843–1920) began his extensive work in 1872. At St. Petersburg University, the course in plant physiology has been taught by Professor Andrei Sergeyevich Famintzin (1835–1918) since 1861. Initially, plant physiology was predominantly a university science. The first Russian textbook on plant physiology was written in 1887 by Prof. A. S. Famintzin, which was subsequently replaced by Alexander Vladimirovich Palladin's textbook, which went through nine editions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, plant physiology underwent a definitive differentiation into its main sub-disciplines. Several of these gained such immense significance that within the first few decades they evolved into independent fields with their own theoretical foundations and broad Structure/179.html">Practical Applications: virology in 1902, agrochemistry in 1910, and microbiology and biochemistry in 1930.

In 1934, the Institute of Plant PHYSIOLOGY OF THE USSR Academy of Sciences was established to coordinate all research in this scientific field. Its walls fostered the fruitful work of Andrei Lvovich Kursanov, Anatoly Alexandrovich Nichiporovich, Mikhail Khristoforovich Chailakhyan, Pavel Alexandrovich Henkel, Ivan Ivanovich Tumanov, and others.

However, from the 1930s through the 1950s, plant physiology entered a difficult period of development, primarily due to its Separation from biochemistry.

During this period, the development of plant physiology was directed less toward solving its own fundamental problems and more toward The Study of applied physiology.

By the mid-1950s, plant physiology worldwide had risen to a new level. The continuation of this tradition was spearheaded by Academician Andrei Lvovich Kursanov, who founded the renowned Kursanov school (whose prominent members include Adolf Trofimovich Mokronosov, Olga Nikolayevna Kulaeva, Elizaveta Butenko, Viktor Yefimovich Semenenko, Yulian Georgiyevich Molotkovsky, Andrei Glebovich Vereshchagin, Igor Anatolyevich Tarchevsky, Vsevolod Vladimirovich Polovyi, and others).

New vectors of scientific inquiry emerged: oxygen exchange and transport (B. B. Vartapetyan), Cytokinins and their role in Metabolic Regulation (O. M. Kulaeva), plant source-sink systems (A. T. Mokronosov), the Organization of plant membranes (Y. G. Molotkovsky), ionic Homeostasis of the plant Cell (D. B. Vakhmistrov), and plant Lipid Metabolism (A. G. Vereshchagin).

Simultaneously, interest in ecological physiology grew significantly. Classical concepts of stress resistance developed by N. A. Maximov, I. I. Tumanov, P. A. Henkel, and B. P. Strogonov were substantially deepened using novel approaches and theoretical frameworks based on modern insights into plant molecular biology and the sub-Cellular Organization of adaptive systems (V. M. Zholkevich, T. I. Trunova).

The period of relative self-isolation in plant physiology gave way to an era of modernization and integration with other sciences—a time when high-sensitivity methods from biophysics, molecular biology, and cell biology were introduced into physiological experiments, a trend that continues today. The techniques of physiological experiments have evolved, and fundamental research is now paving the way for entirely new plant-based biotechnologies. A new stage in the development of plant physiology has arrived, characterized by the assimilation and integration of advances from other experimental biological sciences.

1.5.2 History of plant Physiology in Ukraine

One of the founders of plant physiology in Ukraine was Prof. Osyp Vasylyovych Baranetsky (1843–1905) of Kyiv University, a student of A. S. Famintzin, the founder of this science in Russia. His most important scientific works focused on plant growth, water regimes, and plant anatomy. A weighty contribution to the development of plant physiology in Ukraine was made by Yevhen Pylypovych Votchal (1864–1937), who headed the Department of Plant Physiology and Microbiology at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute starting in 1890, where he invited prominent scientists such as Sergei Navashin, Vladimir Finn, and Grigory Levitsky.

Ye. P. Votchal established a well-known school of physiologists whose members advanced various branches of plant physiology. For instance, Vyacheslav Rafayilovych Zalensky (1875–1923), one of the founders of ecological plant physiology, discovered the dependence of leaf Anatomical Structure on its position along the stem, a principle later known as Zalensky's law.

International recognition for Ukrainian plant physiology was earned by the research of Mykola Hryhorovych Kholodny (1882–1953) in phytohormonology. Broadly speaking, fundamental and theoretical concepts regarding Plant GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT are closely tied to his name. He made significant contributions not only to physiology, but also to plant anatomy, ecology, and soil microbiology. M. G. Kholodny also engaged in the philosophical problems of natural science, and he is rightly considered a follower of the ideas of Charles Darwin and K. A. Timiryazev.

A major role in the establishment of plant physiology belongs to Volodymyr Ivanovych Palladin (1859–1922), who served as a professor of plant physiology and anatomy at Kharkiv University starting in 1889, directed the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, and lectured at Taurida University in Simferopol. His primary scientific works investigated Plant Respiration processes and The Role of Enzymes within them.

The establishment of plant physiology in Ukraine was also advanced by the work of Nestor Teodorovych Hamorak (1892–1937), whose scientific legacy is only now coming to light. Working at the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Ukrainian University—which became the second university after the Ukrainian National University founded in Kyiv in the autumn of 1918 where instruction was conducted in Ukrainian—N. T. Hamorak conducted original research on the stomatal apparatus and plant Transpiration, proposing A number of novel instruments and methods for physiological research. He taught not only plant physiology but also other botanical disciplines. As early as 1920, he published two textbooks on plant anatomy and Morphology, which were the first Ukrainian textbooks in this field.

The true cradle of plant physiology in Ukraine was the Institute of Botany, where leading luminaries of the science worked successfully: M. G. Kholodny, Ye. P. Votchal, and V. M. Lyubimenko.

Universal recognition in international science has been accorded to the works of Academician Andriy Mykhailovych Hrodzynsky, the founder of modern allelopathy. He formulated a new framework for allelopathy as the Circulation of physiologically active substances within a biogeocoenosis, which acts as a regulator of internal and external interactions, driving the equilibrium, stability, and succession of plant communities. Academician A. M. Hrodzynsky was the first to examine allelopathy as an independent biological problem of paramount importance for plant physiology and biochemistry, geobotany, crop production, and the agrotechnology of numerous cultivated plants. He investigated the role of allelopathic plant interactions in natural and artificial coenoses alongside Other forms of interaction, explored allelopathy in higher plants, Fungi, and Bacteria, and developed methods for controlling soil toxicity. This research direction is successfully continued by scientists at the M. M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden of the NAS of Ukraine.

A. M. Hrodzynsky's scientific interests extended far beyond establishing the school of allelopathy. He pioneered several new research directions involving The Use of plants in ergonomic systems, such as phytodesign, medicine, and space biology. He actively pursued theoretical and methodological aspects of plant Introduction and acclimatization and served as one of the primary coordinators for the development of plant physiology and biochemistry in Ukraine.

In the 1960s, research began on plant-microorganism interactions (S. F. Nehrutsky) and symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation (A. V. Manoryk, Yu. P. Starchenkov).

Fundamental investigations into The Nature of plant physiological resistance were conducted by D. P. Protsenko, M. A. Solovyova, I. H. Shmatko, and others in the late 20th century. By that time, it had become possible to significantly deepen knowledge in this field using novel approaches and theoretical concepts based on modern understandings of plant molecular biology and the sub-cellular organization of adaptive systems.

In 1962, the Department of Biophysics and Radiobiology was established at the Institute of Plant Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, focusing on the radiobiological responses of plant organisms and the protective mechanisms of radioprotectants. Academician A. M. Hrodzynsky developed The Theory of plant system reliability, analyzing—for the first time across various Levels of organization, from molecular to organismal and phytocoenotic—the General and Specific reactions of plants to ionizing radiation. He also initiated research in Ukraine on positional information and cell interactions in plant morphogenesis.

At the present stage, more than 50 research institutions and universities in Ukraine are involved in addressing the problems of plant physiology and biochemistry. Among them are the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, the M.M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden of the NAS of Ukraine and other botanical gardens, the Institute of Hydrobiology, the Institute of Cell Biology; departments of plant physiology and botany at universities, agricultural and pedagogical institutes, as well as a number of laboratories within sectoral research institutions of the NAAS of Ukraine.