TARGET CELLS FOR PATTERN FORMATION DURING ADVENTITION ROOTING IN ENGLISH IVY.

Adventitious root formation in debladed petiole cuttings of English ivy proceeds via a direct rooting pattern for the easy-to-roof juvenile phase, while the difficult-to-root mature phase roots through the indirect pattern, Juvenile petiole cuttings treated with NAA (100 μM) plus the polyamine biosynthesis inhibitor, DFMA (1 mM), formed an increased number of roots per cutting initiated through the indirect rooting pattern. The increased formation and the change in rooting pattern were reversed by the addition of putrescine (1 mM). Delaying auxin application to petiole cuttings for 15 days, also induced juvenile petioles to root by the indirect pattern. This could be reversed by rebounding the base of the cutting prior to auxin application at day 15. The data support the use of the terms “pre-competent root forming cells” (PCRFC) and `induced competent root forming cells' (ICRFC) to describe the target cells for the initial events of root formation for the direct and indirect patterns, respectively,