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Articles

Phycomyces: An Increase in Mechanical Extensibility during the Avoidance Growth Response ¹

R. Igor Gamow^b

^a Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309

The sporangiophore of Phycomyces shows a transient response to a double barrier, the avoidance growth response. Tensile tests conducted on the stage IV sporangiophore demonstrate that an increase in mechanical extensibility occurs about a minute after a double barrier stimulus. This change in mechanical extensibility is similar to the one that occurs after a light stimulus. We have concluded that the avoidance stimulus occurs somewhere on the same pathway between the photoreceptor mechanism and the final growth response.