Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in
  • Log out

Search

  • Advanced search
Development
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Development

  • Log in
Advanced search

RSS  Twitter  Facebook  YouTube 

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Special issues
    • Subject collections
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About Development
    • About the Node
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Travelling Fellowships
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
    • Biology Open transfer
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Subscriptions
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
    • For library administrators
JOURNAL ARTICLES
A biochemical model for the initiation and maintenance of the quiescent center: implications for organization of root meristems
N. M. Kerk, N. J. Feldman
Development 1995 121: 2825-2833;
N. M. Kerk
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
N. J. Feldman
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Summary

A new hypothesis for the formation of the quiescent center is presented. Reported data support a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of the quiescent center. The quiescent center is located at the most distal part of the root proper, the most terminal location in the root proper on the path of polar transport from the shoot. Of the many substances polarly transported in the root, auxin is one of the best studied and has been shown to affect root meristem organization. In our mechanism, polar auxin is directly linked to quiescence through the action of ascorbate oxidase and ascorbic acid. Immunolocalization of auxin in the root tip of Zea mays showed that auxin levels in the quiescent center were high compared to the levels in the immediately surrounding meristematic cells. Isolated quiescent centers were shown to have high levels of ascorbate oxidase mRNA and ascorbate oxidase activity relative to proximal meristem tissue. Exogenous auxin caused an increase in ascorbate oxidase mRNA levels and ascorbate oxidase enzyme activity in cultured root tissue. Immunolocalization of ascorbate oxidase in Zea root tips showed high levels of the protein in the quiescent center relative to surrounding cells. This is the first report of a positive marker and activity for the quiescent center. Histochemical detection of ascorbic acid in Zea root tips showed that quiescent center cells have low or undetectable levels of ascorbic acid, presumably due to the high levels of ascorbate oxidase in the quiescent center. As ascorbic acid is a compound known to be necessary for the transition from G1 to S in the cell cycle, its low levels in the quiescent center may be directly responsible for holding these rarely dividing cells in the extended G1 state in which they are mainly found. We propose that our mechanism complements published mathematical modeling of the anatomical structure of root apices, and further propose that the control of relative growth rates in this focal region of the root apex by this mechanism is a determining aspect in generating anatomical patterning in the root apex.

Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Development.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
A biochemical model for the initiation and maintenance of the quiescent center: implications for organization of root meristems
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Development
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Development web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
JOURNAL ARTICLES
A biochemical model for the initiation and maintenance of the quiescent center: implications for organization of root meristems
N. M. Kerk, N. J. Feldman
Development 1995 121: 2825-2833;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
JOURNAL ARTICLES
A biochemical model for the initiation and maintenance of the quiescent center: implications for organization of root meristems
N. M. Kerk, N. J. Feldman
Development 1995 121: 2825-2833;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article navigation

  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & metrics
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • Non-imprinted Igf2r expression decreases growth and rescues the Tme mutation in mice
  • REF-1, a protein with two bHLH domains, alters the pattern of cell fusion in C. elegans by regulating Hox protein activity
  • Centrosome migration into the Drosophila oocyte is independent of BicD and egl, and of the organisation of the microtubule cytoskeleton
Show more JOURNAL ARTICLES

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Biology Open

Advertisement

An interview with Swathi Arur

Swathi Arur joined the team at Development as an Academic Editor in 2020. Her lab uses multidisciplinary approaches to understand female germline development and fertility. We met with her over Zoom to hear more about her life, her career and her love for C. elegans.


Jim Wells and Hanna Mikkola join our team of Editors

We are pleased to welcome James (Jim) Wells and Hanna Mikkola to our team of Editors. Jim joins us a new Academic Editor, taking over from Gordan Keller, and Hanna joins our team of Associate Editors. Find out more about their research interests and areas of expertise.


New funding scheme supports sustainable events

As part of our Sustainable Conferencing Initiative, we are pleased to announce funding for organisers that seek to reduce the environmental footprint of their event. The next deadline to apply for a Scientific Meeting grant is 26 March 2021.


Read & Publish participation continues to grow

“I’d heard of Read & Publish deals and knew that many universities, including mine, had signed up to them but I had not previously understood the benefits that these deals bring to authors who work at those universities.”

Professor Sally Lowell (University of Edinburgh) shares her experience of publishing Open Access as part of our growing Read & Publish initiative. We now have over 150 institutions in 15 countries and four library consortia taking part – find out more and view our full list of participating institutions.


Upcoming special issues

Imaging Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration
Submission deadline: 30 March 2021
Publication: mid-2021

The Immune System in Development and Regeneration
Guest editors: Florent Ginhoux and Paul Martin
Submission deadline: 1 September 2021
Publication: Spring 2022

Both special issues welcome Review articles as well as Research articles, and will be widely promoted online and at key global conferences.


Development presents...

Our successful webinar series continues into 2021, with early-career researchers presenting their papers and a chance to virtually network with the developmental biology community afterwards. Here, Michèle Romanos talks about her new preprint, which mixes experimentation in quail embryos and computational modelling to understand how heterogeneity in a tissue influences cell rate.

Save your spot at our next session:

10 March
Time: 9:00 (GMT)
Chaired by: Thomas Lecuit

Join our mailing list to receive news and updates on the series.

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Special issues
  • Subject collections
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About Development
  • About the Node
  • Editors and board
  • Editor biographies
  • Travelling Fellowships
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists

For authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access
  • Biology Open transfer

Journal info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact Development
  • Subscriptions
  • Advertising
  • Feedback
  • Institutional usage stats (logged-in users only)

 Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992