The ultrastructure of the central zone cells of the shoot apex of Helianthus annuus

1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (11) ◽  
pp. 2009-2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. K. Sawhney ◽  
P. J. Rennie ◽  
T. A. Steeves

An ultrastructural study of the vegetative shoot apex of Helianthus annuus L. cv. Peredovic has shown that in most respects the cytoplasmic components of the central zone cells were similar to those of the mitotically active peripheral zone cells. For example, the mitochondria, dictyosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, and microtubules were not different either in their structure or in distribution in the two types of cells. The only striking difference found was the presence of starch-containing plastids in the central zone, primarily in the two tunica layers in this region, and their absence from peripheral and immediately subjacent regions of the meristem. Starch-containing plastids were observed in the differentiating pith cells. Plasmodesmata were observed in the central zone and in walls between central and peripheral zone cells.

1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1367-1375 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Steeves ◽  
M. Anne Hicks ◽  
J. M. Naylor ◽  
Patricia Rennie

The vegetative shoot apex of Helianthus annuus contains a central zone in which the cell nuclei are relatively large and stain faintly in the Feulgen reaction. Excised apices in the vegetative state were supplied with thymidine-H3 through their sterile, liquid culture medium. Autoradiography after 24 or 48 hours of feeding revealed no significant incorporation of the labeled precursor into central zone nuclei, but extensive incorporation in peripheral regions of the apex. It is concluded that during vegetative growth deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis and mitosis are arrested in the central zone or reduced to an extremely slow rate. Microspectrophotometry, however, indicates that the central zone nuclei are not held at the 2C level. With the onset of flowering, cytological zonation disappears in the apex and the incorporation of thymidine-H3 is uniformly heavy throughout the apical region.


1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 971-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Davis ◽  
Patricia Rennie ◽  
Taylor A. Steeves

The cytologically distinctive central zone of the vegetative shoot apex of Helianthus annuus L. cv. Peredovic has a mitotic frequency considerably lower than that of the surrounding peripheral zone in intact plants. Apices excised and grown in culture for 5 days before being supplied with [H3]thymidine reveal a correspondingly low level of DNA synthesis in the central zone when autoradiographed. In similarly cultured apices, mitotic activity in the central zone is less than that recorded for intact plants. Labelling immediately after excision of the apex indicates that the central zone cells are activated by the operation and quiescence returns during the following 5 days. This activation is confirmed by mitotic counts 2 days after excision. The removal of only two young leaves from the apical buds of otherwise intact plants results in a comparable stimulation of mitotic activity in the central zone. These observations cast doubt upon the significance of mitotic activity in living shoot apices when these have been exposed for observation by removal of leaves. They also raise questions about the validity of labelling techniques which involve the partial dissection of the shoot apex.


1969 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
JJ Shah ◽  
K Unnikrishnan

The structure and plastochronic changes of the shoot apex, and the origin, development, procambialization, and vascular relationships of the axillary bud in Cuminum cyminium were investigated. Pre-leaf initiation, leaf initiation, and post-leaf initiation phases of the shoot apex are identified. The inflorescence is axillary. During flowering the main vegetative shoot apex is semispherical, stratified, and devoid of any distinction between the central and peripheral zones. The vegetative axillary bud is differentiated from the peripheral zone of the shoot apex at the second node. It is delimited by an arcuate shell zone which helps in changing the apical position of the bud to foliar. The emergence of the bud is effected by the meristematic activity of tunica and corpus cells. A single prophyll is formed at right angles to the axillant leaf. Usually the bud trace procambium is differentiated during prophyll initiation. Occasionally it may be seen earlier, but not in connection with the earliest visible bud meristem. There are four to six strands of the bud trace directly interconnecting not only the strands of the prophyll and axillant leaf traces but also those of the second or sometimes even the third bud leaf and the axillant leaf. The bud trace procambial connection is formed by basipetal and acropetal differentiation of procambium in which the bud meristem cells and vacuolated ground meristem cells below the bud are involved. The cells of the peripheral zone of the bud apex below the prophyll primordium procambialize in a basipetal direction. As a continuation from the strand of the axillant leaf trace, the adjacent vacuolated ground meristem cells below the bud acropetally differentiate into procambial cells in the direction of the basipetal procambium and they make connection with it. All the strands of the bud trace are not simultaneously developed. The vegetative and inflorescence buds show varying vascular relationships between the strands of the leaf traces and those of the bud traces. The node differentiated during the vegetative phase of the plant is trilacunar and the one formed at flowering time is tetra- or pentalacunar. The nature and number of bud trace strands, however, suggest fundamental similarities between vegetative and inflorescence buds.


1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Raswati Soetiarto ◽  
Ernest Ball

The vegetative apex was a low dome consisting of two layers of tunica surmounting a very small corpus. Foliar primordia originated as periclines in the flanks of T2. The transition apex became first a steep cone and then a hemisphere. All floral primordia—the two bracts, the two sepals, the several whorls of petals, the several whorls of stamens, and the carpels—originated in the manner of leaves, as periclines in T2 on the flanks of the apex. All appendages, including carpels, were therefore lateral. In the early transition, the apex had a brief stage in which there were three tunica layers, but the inner one was lost with the onset of the sepals. The bracts and the first sepal continued the normal positions of primordia for the vegetative phyllotaxy of 3/8, but with the second sepal, this phyllotaxy was lost, and petals, stamens, and carpels were produced in whorls. While leaves, bracts, sepals, and petals were produced in acropetal sequence, stamens were produced in basipetal sequence, and carpels appeared simultaneously. After carpels were formed, the rest of the floral apex underwent a brief period of expansion growth, achieving a diameter comparable to that of a shoot apex, but its substance was eventually incorporated into the carpel margins, which later produced the ovules. This agrees with the determinate nature of the floral apex. During the development of the first series of floral organs, the floral apex underwent continued increase in area, finally achieving a diameter several times that of the vegetative shoot apex. Its size and form were such that they were compared to those of some inflorescence apices. After development of the first series of floral organs, the subjacent tissues to the floral meristem underwent divisions and elongation at right angles to the axis, causing at first a flattening of the meristem, and eventually a cup-shaped form, with the carpels attached in the bottom of a bowl. The mature flower was thus perigynous, but this development arose quite differently from the perigyny as it is known from ontogenetic studies in the Rosaceae.


1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 835-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph D. Callos ◽  
Marion DiRado ◽  
Bibo Xu ◽  
Friedrich J. Behringer ◽  
Bruce M. Link ◽  
...  

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