Basic model
The model was independently proposed by the Russian scientist Nikolai Cholodny of the University of Kyiv in 1927 and by Frits Warmolt Went of the California Institute of Technology in 1928, both based on work they had done in 1926. The basic elements of the theory are that auxin is the sole hormone that controls growth in gravitropism and phototropism; the rate of growth depends on the concentration of auxin; and both gravity and unidirectional light affect the movement of auxin. The original theory predicts that since the growth factor would move from the lighted side to the shady side, growth would slow on the lighted side and speed up on the shady side, so the stem will begin to bend toward the light source. Went's 1926 experiment appeared to demonstrate that auxin moved towards the shady side of the tip of the coleoptile, the pointed protective sheath covering the emerging shoot. Cholodny and Went proposed that auxin is synthesized in the coleoptile tip, which senses light and sends the auxin down the shady side of the coleoptile, causing asymmetric growth with the shoot bending towards the light source. Later experiments by Dolk in 1930 showed that auxin moved from a source along a horizontal coleo