For Sunflower, Turning Toward the Sun Requires Multiple Complex Systems; Behavior Differs from Well-Known Light-Seeking Response of Seedlings

A sunflower’s ability to track the sun east to west during the day, and to face east again before the next sunrise, relies on multiple types of photoresponses, according to a new study published October 31^st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Stacey Harmer and colleagues at the University of California Davis, USA. The results deepen the understanding of this well-known plant behavior, and upend previous assumptions about its dependence on a canonical light-dependent response pathway. The open-access article is titled “Multiple Light Signaling Pathways Control Solar Tracking in Sunflowers.”