The key difference between autonomic and paratonic movements is that autonomic movements are the responses to a stimulus generated within the plant due to genes while paratonic movements are the responses of plants to an external stimulus without the involvement of genes.
Plants respond to external stimuli; they also respond to the stimuli generated within the plant. Based on that, there are two types of movements as autonomic movements and paratonic movements. Autonomic movements are the responses exhibited to some internal causes, especially due to the involvement of genes. In contrast, paratonic movements are the responses exhibited to external stimuli such as heat, pressure, water, sunlight, etc. Due to the involvement of genes, autonomic movements are present in plants by birth, unlike paratonic movements.
