About us

Laboratory of Growth Regulators has been created in 1996 as a joint facility of the Faculty of Science, Palacký University (PU) and the Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences (IEB CAS).

Researchers at the LGR deal mainly with cytokinins, but recently also with other groups of plant growth regulators. The phytohormones cytokinins promote cell division, or cytokinesis, in plant roots and shoots. They are involved primarily in cell growth and differentiation but they also affect apical dominance, axillary bud growth, and leaf senescence. These hormones are present in very low concentrations in plant cells. One globally renowned contribution of the LGR in this field is the expansion of a number of cytokinins, especially the aromatic cytokinins and their olomoucine-derived derivatives. These compounds are used in cancer treatment. Olomoucine was the first in a line of anti-tumor agents derived from cytokinins. Development of other, more effective inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases, key enzymes of cell division cycle like bohemine, roscovitine, olomoucine II and others followed. (more…)