Physiological plant disorder diseases. Improving drainage will help to alleviate this problem. Hail can cause damage to soft skinned fruits, and may also allow brown rot or other fungi to penetrate the plant. Brown spot markings or lines on one side of a mature apple are indicative of a spring hailstorm. Plants affected by salt stress are able to take water from soil, due to an osmotic imbalance between soil and plant. Poor growth and a variety of disorders such as leaf discolouration (chlorosis) can be caused by a shortage of one or more plant nutrients. Poor plant uptake of a nutrient from
Epigenetics of plant growth and development premise in plants. In hybrids, lack of proper regulatory action, such as silencing by methylation, leads to uninhibited genes. If the gene is involved in growth, such as photosynthesis, the plant will experience increased vitality (Ni et al. 2008). The results heterosis can be seen in traits such as increased fruit yield, earlier ripening, and heat tolerance. Heterosis has been shown to provide increased general growth and fruit yield in tomato plants (Xiaodong). Epigenetics of plant growth and development Plants depend on epigenetic processes for proper function. Epigenetics has been defined as "the study of changes in gene function that