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Abstract Detail


Developmental and Structural Section

Hamamoto, Lesley [1], Hawes, Martha [2], Rost, Thomas [1].

The production and release of living root cap border cells is a function of root apical meristem type in dicotyledonous angiosperm plants.

THE root apical meristems (RAM) of flowering plant roots are organized into recognizable pattern types. Although there are phylogenetic distribution patterns in plant groups, the possible evolutionary advantages of different RAM organization patterns are not understood. Root caps of many flowering plant roots are known to release living border cells into the rhizosphere, where the cells are believed to have the capacity to alter conditions in the soil and to interact with soil micro-organisms. Consequently, high rates of border cell production may have the potential to greatly benefit plant growth and development, and provide a selective advantage in certain soil environments. In this study we report the use of several approaches to elucidate the anatomical and developmental relationships between RAM organization and border cell production. We report for the first time a correlation between RAM organization type and the production and release of border cells: species exhibiting open RAM organization produce significantly more border cells than species exhibiting closed apical organization. Roots with closed apical organization release peripheral root cap cells in sheets or large groups of dead cells, whereas root caps with open organization release individual living border cells. This study, the first to document a relationship between RAM organization, root cap behavior, and a possible ecological benefit to the plant, may yield a framework to examine the evolutionary causes for the diversification of RAM organization types across taxa.


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1 - University of California Davis, Section of Plant Biology, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California, 95616-8537, USA
2 - University of Arizona, Plant Sciences, Tucson, Arizona, 85712, usa

Keywords:
root apical meristem
root cap
border cells.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 65-9
Location: 303/Bell Memorial Union
Date: Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
Time: 10:45 AM
Abstract ID:212


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