Frits Warmolt Went

Who was Frits Warmolt Went?

Frits Warmolt Went was a Dutch biologist whose 1928 experiment demonstrated the existence of auxin in plants.

Went's father was the prominent Dutch botanist F.A.F.C. Went. After graduating from the University of Utrecht, Holland in 1927 with a dissertation on the effects of the plant hormone auxin, Went then worked as a plant pathologist in the research labs of the Royal Botanical Garden in Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1933. He then took a position at Caltech in Pasadena, California, first researching plant hormones. His interest gradually shifted to environmental influences on plant growth. At Caltech he was among the first to demonstrate the importance of hormones in plant growth and development. He played an important role in the development of synthetic plant hormones, which then became the basis of much of the agricultural chemical industry.

Went is known for the Cholodny-Went model, named after Went and the Soviet scientist N. Cholodny. They proposed it in 1937, after coming independently to the same conclusions. This is an early model describing the phototropic and gravitropic properties of emerging shoots of monocotyledons. It proposes that auxin, a plant growth hormone, is synthesized in the coleoptile tip, which senses light or gravity and will send the auxin down the appropriate side of the shoot. This causes a symmetric growth of one side of the plant. As a result, the plant shoot will begin to bend toward a light source or toward the surface.