Significance Plants have the ability to live and grow for many thousands of years due to the activity of groups of cells called meristems. Meristems contain stem cells that can survive the entire life of the plant and ensure the continuous supply of new cells. Stem cells are thought to be qualitatively different compared with their neighboring daughter cells. Here we show that in the case of the proximal root meristem, there does not seem to be such an on-off type of organization. We show that the majority of transcripts, together with other cellular properties, gradually transition from stem cell activity to differentiation, by opposing gradients. This impacts our understanding of meristem organization and will determine the direction of future research.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Wendrich et al. (2017) studied this question.