Homeodomain transcription factors (TF) play an important role in developmental control of higher eukaryotes, in particular, in the construction of the body plan. In plants, TFs of this group, especially representatives of the WOX family, are necessary for the formation and maintenance of meristems, the structures underlying postembryonic development and organogenesis. WOX TFs, together with the CLE peptides and their receptors that regulate their activity, constitute the WOX-CLAVATA system, a conservative regulatory module that ensures the functioning of various meristems. The formation, maintenance, and termination of meristems is a dynamic process that depends on many feedbacks that, in addition to the components of the WOX-CLAVATA system, involve TFs of other groups, as well as auxins and cytokinins. The review considers the dynamic principles of meristem regulation, as well as the genetic control of the formation and functioning of facultative/irregular secondary meristems and the role of homeodomain-containing TFs in this process.
Lebedeva et al. (Wed,) studied this question.