Abstract
A general description is given for the meristem of elongating organs such as for stem internode, monocotyledonous leaf and roots. The meristem is viewed as a cellular organization rather than traditionally as a region with certain growth dynamics; cell lineages are inspected and analyzed by cell packet features. Three features of the meristem are described by the displacement of the distal (bottom) transverse wall of a cell: (a) the duration of time the cell and its derivatives spend in the meristem, (b) the duration of cell cycle and (c) the number of cells in a clone derived from a meristematic cell. Cell packet analyses of data from the internode of the Purple Heart (Setcreasea) and the top epidermis of the leaf of the Wandering Jew (Zebrina) indicate meristem lengths of 33 and 50 cells, respectively, while growth and cell division rates in the meristem for both species follow Gaussian distributions.
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Korn, R.W. Analysis of cell packets in elongating plant tissue. Bltn Mathcal Biology 56, 775–794 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458267
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458267