Summary

We have mapped the fate of cells in the Arabidopsis embryonic shoot apical meristem by irradiating seed and scoring the resulting clonally derived sectors. 176 white, yellow, pale green or variegated sectors were identified and scored for their position and extent in the resulting plants. Most sectors were confined to a fraction of a leaf, and only occasionally extended into the inflorescence. Sectors that extended into the inflorescence were larger, and usually encompassed about a third to a half of the inflorescence circumference. We also find that axillary buds in Arabidopsis are clonally related to the subtending leaf. Sections through the dry seed embryo indicate that the embryonic shoot apical meristem contains approximately 110 cells in the three meristematic layers prior to the formation of the first two leaf primordia. The histological analysis of cell number in the shoot apical meristem, in combination with the sector analysis have been used to construct a map of the probable fate of cells in the embryonic shoot apical meristem.