Flux-based transport enhancement as a plausible unifying mechanism for auxin transport in meristem development.

ABSTRACT: Plants continuously generate new organs through the activity of populations of stem cells called meristems. The shoot apical meristem initiates leaves, flowers, and lateral meristems in highly ordered, spiralled, or whorled patterns via a process called phyllotaxis. It is commonly accepted that the active transport of the plant hormone auxin plays a major role in this process. Current hypotheses propose that cellular hormone transporters of the PIN family would create local auxin maxima at precise positions, which in turn would lead to organ initiation. To explain how auxin transporters could create hormone fluxes to distinct regions within the plant, different concepts have been proposed. A major hypothesis, canalization, proposes that the auxin transporters act by amplifying and stabiliz

SUBMITTER: Stoma S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2565506 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature