Auxin-responsive cDNA clones have been isolated from a cDNA library prepared from elongating soybean hypocotyl poly(A)+RNA. The expression of two such sequences has been assessed by RNA blot hybridization analyses during normal developmental transitions in the soybean hypocotyl and during incubation of sections excised from the region of cell elongation. The concentrations of these poly(A)+RNAs are higher in the elongating zone than in the apical and mature zones of the hypocotyl. Both poly(A)+RNAs are depleted during incubation of the sections in the absence ofauxin. The loss ofone ofthese sequences (pJCWI) is prevented by the addition of auxin to the incubation medium while the other sequence (pJCW2) increases above the initial level in the presence of auxin. The addition of auxin to auxin-depleted tissue in which the sequences are depleted results in rapid accumulation of these poly(A)+RNAs; pJCW1 accumulates to the control level while pJCW2 increases well above the control level. Auxins are a class of plant hormones implicated in the control of both cell elongation and cell division (1). Based on an analysis ofgrowth characteristics and nucleic acid content ofcallus tissue under different hormone regimes, Skoog (2) suggested that the action of auxin is closely coupled to altered nucleic acid metabolism. Subsequently, results from a number of investigations showed higher nucleic acid contents of tissue in response to auxin (3,4). With the availability ofrelatively specific inhibitors of RNA and protein synthesis, a requirement for RNA and protein synthesis in auxin-induced cell elongation was demonstrated (5,6). A generally positive correlation between the ability of auxin to enhance RNA synthesis and the enhancement of cell elongation by auxin has been shown in a number of studies (7,8). The parallel incremental inhibition of (mRNA-like) RNA synthesis by actinomycin D or protein synthesis by cycloheximide and auxin-induced cell elongation also provided support for the view of a close association between nucleic acid metabolism and auxin action (9, 10).The possibility of a causal relationship between the enhancement by auxin ofcell elongation and altered RNA synthesis was generally thought to be excluded by the theoretical considerations of Evans and Ray (11) relating the kinetics of auxin-induced growth to kinetic parameters of RNA synthesis or halflife ofthose RNAs (or both). Consequently, there was a dramatic shift in research activity relating to auxin action from consideration of RNA and protein synthesis to studies on acidification of the cell wall by auxin-mediated hydrogen ion extrusion (12,13 (16,17) and RNA blot hybridization to cloned cDNAs (18). Soybean cells in culture also showed changes in selected mRNA levels in response to auxin based on in vitro translation data (19). Earlier, Verma et al. (20) showed increased levels of translatable cellulase mRNA in pea stem tissue undergoing longterm auxin-induced growth aberrations. In recent studies, Zurfluh and Guilfoyle (21,22) showed that au...