A quantitative and dynamic model for plant stem cell regulation

Plants maintain pools of totipotent stem cells throughout their entire life. These stem cells are embedded within specialized tissues called meristems, which form the growing points of the organism. The shoot apical meristem of the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana is subdivided into several dist...

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Hauptverfasser: Geier, Florian (VerfasserIn) , Lohmann, Jan U. (VerfasserIn)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: October 29, 2008
In: PLOS ONE
Year: 2008, Jahrgang: 3, Heft: 10
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0003553
Online-Zugang:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003553
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003553
Volltext
Verfasserangaben:Florian Geier, Jan U. Lohmann, Moritz Gerstung, Annette T. Maier, Jens Timmer, Christian Fleck
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Plants maintain pools of totipotent stem cells throughout their entire life. These stem cells are embedded within specialized tissues called meristems, which form the growing points of the organism. The shoot apical meristem of the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana is subdivided into several distinct domains, which execute diverse biological functions, such as tissue organization, cell-proliferation and differentiation. The number of cells required for growth and organ formation changes over the course of a plants life, while the structure of the meristem remains remarkably constant. Thus, regulatory systems must be in place, which allow for an adaptation of cell proliferation within the shoot apical meristem, while maintaining the organization at the tissue level. To advance our understanding of this dynamic tissue behavior, we measured domain sizes as well as cell division rates of the shoot apical meristem under various environmental conditions, which cause adaptations in meristem size. Based on our results we developed a mathematical model to explain the observed changes by a cell pool size dependent regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation, which is able to correctly predict CLV3 and WUS over-expression phenotypes. While the model shows stem cell homeostasis under constant growth conditions, it predicts a variation in stem cell number under changing conditions. Consistent with our experimental data this behavior is correlated with variations in cell proliferation. Therefore, we investigate different signaling mechanisms, which could stabilize stem cell number despite variations in cell proliferation. Our results shed light onto the dynamic constraints of stem cell pool maintenance in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis in different environmental conditions and developmental states.
Beschreibung:Gesehen am 15.05.2017
Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0003553