In sterile nutrient culture, shoot apices of the rhizome of Osmunda cinnamomea L., devoid of all visible foliar primordia, quickly give rise to dorsiventral leaf primordia at a presumptive leaf site (I1). It was established that these primordia were irreversibly determined as leaves. To examine the morphogenetic role of the shoot apex in governing early leaf development, this site was permanently isolated from the shoot apex by a single tangential cut. Usually, radially symmetrical shoots of indeterminate growth arose at I1 as a result of this surgery. By contrast, when organic continuity between I1 and the shoot apex was only temporarily interrupted by a cut which was subsequently allowed to heal, normally oriented dorsiventral leaf primordia formed most frequently at I1. These, too, were determined as leaves. It was concluded that the shoot apex serves as a source of determinative influences for the nascent primordium, imposing dorsiventrality and a pattern of determinate growth on the leaf site.
Leaf Development Following Longitudinal Split of the Shoot Apices of the Germinating Embryo and the Seedling in Sesamum indicum L.
