Development 130, e1002 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 The Company of Biologists Limited
Regulating plant vascular patterning
On p. 2139, Parker et al.
report the identification of a novel gene from two vascular-patterning
Arabidopsis mutants, cov1-1 and cov1-2. In the
Arabidopsis stem, vascular bundle patterning is highly ordered,
consisting of five to eight bundles of xylem and phloem that are separated by
interfascicular (IF) tissue. In cov1 mutants, this pattern breaks
down in the stem, to produce plants with a continuous ring-like pattern of
undefined bundles interspersed with little IF tissue. However, as the authors
show, this defect is not caused by altered auxin signalling – an inducer
of vascular development. They predict that COV1 encodes an integral
membrane protein, which might function in the negative regulation of xylem and
phloem differentiation in stems. Future studies should provide new insights
into its function and into this important, but little understood, patterning
process in plants.
Related articles in Development:
- Isolation of COV1, a gene involved in the regulation of vascular patterning in the stem of Arabidopsis
- Garry Parker, Rebecca Schofield, Björn Sundberg, and Simon Turner
Development 2003 130: 2139-2148.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
