Abstract
The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is responsible for the indeterminate growth of the maize shoot. Formed during embryogenesis, the SAM consists of a pool of stem cells that divide to give rise to daughter cells that either maintain stem cell fate or are incorporated into leaf primordia, axillary shoot meristems or the growing stem tissues. Classical studies over the past century have revealed the cellular organization of the SAM, its ability to respond to systemic signals from distant organs, and behavior and fates of cells in this small but essential structure. More recently, we have started to understand molecular mechanisms of SAM function, an insight that has only been possible through forward genetic analysis. Several pathways for meristem maintenance and proliferation control are now known, however an integrated model of how the meristem functions awaits further genetic and genomic analysis. As the SAM is formed during embryogenesis and persists through the inflorescence phase, and its activity is intimately integrated with leaf initiation, readers are encouraged to also consult the chapters on Maize Embryogenesis by Wolfgang Werr, Axial patterning of the maize leaf by Toshi Foster and Marja Timmermans, Floral Transition in Maize by Joe Colasanti and Mike Muszynski and Inflorescences by Robert Schmidt and Erik Vollbrecht.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbe, E. C., Phinney, B. O. and Baer, D. F. (1951). The growth of the shoot apex in maize: Internal features. Am. J. Bot.38, 744–751.
Benitez Alfonso, Y., Cantrill, L. and Jackson, D. (2007). Plasmodesmata: Cell–cell channels in plants (ed. Volkmann, D., Barlow, P. W. and Baluska, F.), New York: Springer.
Bommert, P., Lunde, C., Nardmann, J., Vollbrecht, E., Running, M., Jackson, D., Hake, S. and Werr, W. (2005). Thick tassel dwarf1 encodes a putative maize ortholog of the Arabidopsis CLAVATA1 leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase . Development132, 1235–1245.
Bommineni, V. R., Cheng, P. C. and Walden, D. B. (1995). Reorganization of cells in the maize apical dome within six days of culture after microsurgery. Maydica40, 289–298.
Bortiri, E., Jackson, D. and Hake, S. (2006). Advances in maize genomics: The emergence of positional cloning. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.9, 164–171.
Clark, J. K. and Sheridan, W. F. (1991). Isolation and Characterization of 51 embryo-specific Mutations of Maize . Plant Cell3, 935–951.
Clark, S. E., Williams, R. W. and Meyerowitz, E. M. (1997). The CLAVATA1 gene encodes a putative receptor kinase that controls shoot and floral meristem size in Arabidopsis . Cell89 575–585.
Evans, M. M. S. and Barton, M. K. (1997). Genetics of angiosperm shoot apical meristem development. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol.48, 673–701.
Fletcher, L. C., Brand, U., Running, M. P., Simon, R. and Meyerowitz, E. M. (1999). Signaling of cell fate decisions by CLAVATA3 in Arabidopsis shoot meristems . Science283, 1911–1914.
Giulini, A., Wang, J. and Jackson, D. (2004). Control of phyllotaxy by the cytokinin-inducible response regulator homologue ABPHYL1 . Nature430, 1031–1034.
Hake, S. and Freeling, M. (1986). Analysis of genetic mosaics shows that the extra epidermal cell divisions in Knottedmutant maize plants are induced by adjacent mesophyll cells . Nature320, 621–623.
Hubbard, L., McSteen, P., Doebley, J. and Hake, S. (2002). Expression patterns and mutant phe-notype of teosinte branched1 correlate with growth suppression in maize and teosinte . Genetics162, 1927–1935.
Irish, E. and Nelson, T. (1988). Development of maize plants from cultured shoot apices. Planta175, 9–12.
Irish, EE. and Karlen, S (1998) Restoration of Juvenility in Maize Shoots by Meristem Culture Int. J Plant Sci. 159(5), 695. DOI: 10.1086/297587
Jackson, D. and Hake, S. (1999). Control of phyllotaxy in maize by the ABPHYL1gene. Development126, 315–323.
Jackson, D., Veit, B. and Hake, S. (1994). Expression of maize KNOTTED1 related homeobox genes in the shoot apical meristem predicts patterns of morphogenesis in the vegetative shoot . Development120, 405–413.
Jasinski, S., Piazza, P., Craft, J., Hay, A., Woolley, L., Rieu, I., Phillips, A., Hedden, P. and Tsiantis, M. (2005). KNOX action in Arabidopsis is mediated by coordinate regulation of cytokinin and gibberellin activities . Curr. Biol.15, 1560–1565.
Jeong, S., Trotochaud, A. E. and Clark, S. E. (1999). The Arabidopsis CLAVATA2 gene encodes a receptor-like protein required for the stability of the CLAVATA1 receptor-like kinase . Plant Cell11, 1925–1933.
Kaplan, D. and Cooke, T. (1997). Fundamental concepts in the embryogenesis of dicotyledons: A morphological interpretation of embryo mutants . Plant Cell9, 1903–1919.
Kerstetter, R. A., Laudencia-Chingcuanco, D., Smith, L. G. and Hake, S. (1997). Loss-of-function mutations in the maize homeobox gene, knotted1, are defective in shoot meristem maintenance. Development124, 3045–3054.
Kessler, S., Townsley, B. and Sinha, N. (2006). L1 division and differentiation patterns influence shoot apical meristem maintenance . Plant Physiol.141, 1349–1362.
Kim, J. Y., Yuan, Z., Cilia, M., Khalfan-Jagani, Z. and Jackson, D. (2002). Intercellular trafficking of a KNOTTED1 green fluorescent protein fusion in the leaf and shoot meristem of Arabidopsis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.99, 4103–4108.
Kim, J. Y., Yuan, Z. and Jackson, D. (2003). Developmental regulation and significance of KNOX protein trafficking in Arabidopsis . Development130, 4351–4362.
Ledin, R. (1954). The vegetative shoot apex of Zea mays. Am. J. Bot.41, 11–17.
Long, J. A., Moan, E. I., Medford, J. I. and Barton, M. K. (1996). A member of the KNOTTED class of homeodomain proteins encoded by the SHOOTMERISTEMLESS gene of Arabidopsis . Nature379, 66–69.
Lucas, W. J., Bouche-Pillon, S., Jackson, D. P., Nguyen, L., Baker, L., Ding, B. and Hake, S. (1995) . Selective trafficking of KNOTTED1 homeodomain protein and its mRNA through plasmodesmata. Science270, 1980–1983.
Mayer, K. F., Schoof, H., Haecker, A., Lenhard, M., Jurgens, G. and Laux, T. (1998). Role of WUSCHEL in regulating stem cell fate in the Arabidopsis shoot meristem . Cell95, 805–815.
McConnell, J. R. and Barton, M. K. (1998). Leaf polarity and meristem formation in Arabidopsis. Development125, 2935–2942.
McDaniel, C. N. and Poethig, R. S. (1988). Cell lineage patterns in the shoot apical meristem of the germinating maize embryo . Planta175, 13–22.
McSteen, P., Malcomber, S., Skirpan, A., Lunde, C., Wu, X., Kellogg, E. and Hake, S. (2007). Barren inflorescence2 Encodes a co-ortholog of the PINOID serine/threonine kinase and is required for organogenesis during inflorescence and vegetative development in maize . Plant Physiol.144, 1000–1011.
Nagasaki, H., Itoh, J., Hayashi, K., Hibara, K., Satoh-Nagasawa, N., Nosaka, M., Mukouhata, M., Ashikari, M., Kitano, H., Matsuoka, M. (2007). The small interfering RNA production pathway is required for shoot meristem initiation in rice . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.104, 14867–14871.
Nardmann, J. and Werr, W. (2006). The shoot stem cell niche in angiosperms: Expression patterns of WUS orthologues in rice and maize imply major modifications in the course of mono- and dicot evolution. Mol. Biol. Evol.23, 2492–2504.
Ohtsu, K., Smith, M. B., Emrich, S. J., Borsuk, L. A., Zhou, R., Chen, T., Zhang, X., Timmermans, M. C., Beck, J., Buckner, B. (2007). Global gene expression analysis of the shoot apical mer-istem of maize . Plant J.52, 391–404.
Ori, N., Juarez, M. T., Jackson, D., Yamaguchi, J., Banowetz, G. M. and Hake, S. (1999). Leaf senescence is delayed in tobacco plants expressing the maize homeobox gene knotted1 under the control of a senescence-activated promoter . Plant Cell11, 1073–1080.
Pilu, R., Consonni, G., Busti, E., MacCabe, A. P., Giulini, A., Dolfini, S. and Gavazzi, G. (2002). Mutations in two independent genes lead to suppression of the shoot apical meristem in maize . Plant Physiol.128, 502–511.
Poethig, R. S., Coe, E. H. and Johri, M. M. (1986). Cell lineage patterns in maize embryogenesis: A clonal analysis . Dev. Biol.117, 392–404.
Randolph, L. F. (1936). Developmental morphology of the maize caryopsis. J. Agric. Res.53, 881–916.
Reinhardt, D., Mandel, T. and Kuhlemeier, C. (2000). Auxin regulates the initiation and radial position of plant lateral organs . Plant Cell12, 507–518.
Reinhardt, D., Pesce, E. R., Stieger, P., Mandel, T., Baltensperger, K., Bennett, M., Traas, J., Friml, J. and Kuhlemeier , C. (2003) . Regulation of phyllotaxis by polar auxin transport . Nature426, 255–260.
Rivin, C., Sollinger, J., Strom, D. and Hardeman, K. (1995). Genetics and morphogenesis of dks8, a shootless mutant of maize. J. Cell Biochem. 459.
Ruiz-Medrano, R., Xoconostle-Cazares, B. and Kragler, F. (2004). The plasmodesmatal transport pathway for homeotic proteins, silencing signals and viruses . Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 7, 641–650.
Sakamoto, T., Kamiya, N., Ueguchi-Tanaka, M., Iwahori, S. and Matsuoka, M. (2001). KNOX homeodomain protein directly suppresses the expression of a gibberellin biosynthetic gene in the tobacco shoot apical meristem . Genes Dev. 15, 581–590.
Sakamoto, T., Sakakibara, H., Kojima, M., Yamamoto, Y., Nagasaki, H., Inukai, Y., Sato, Y. and Matsuoka, M. (2006). Ectopic expression of KNOTTED1-like homeobox protein induces expression of cytokinin biosynthesis genes in rice . Plant Physiol. 142, 54–62.
Sato, Y., Sentoku, N., Miura, Y., Hirochika, H., Kitano, H. and Matsuoka, M. (1999). Loss-of-function mutations in the rice homeobox gene OSH15 affect the architecture of internodes resulting in dwarf plants . EMBO J. 18, 992–1002.
Satoh, N., Itoh, J. and Nagato, Y. (2003). The SHOOTLESS2 and SHOOTLESS1 genes are involved in both initiation and maintenance of the shoot apical meristem through regulating the number of indeterminate cells . Genetics 164, 335–346.
Sharman, B. C. (1942). Developmental anatomy of the shoot of Zea Mays L. Ann. Bot. 22, 245–282.
Smith, L. G., Greene, B., Veit, B. and Hake, S. (1992). A dominant mutation in the maize home-obox gene, Knotted-1 , causes its ectopic expression in leaf cells with altered fates . Development 116, 21–30.
Steeves, T. A. and Sussex, I. M. (1989). Patterns in Plant Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sussex, I. M. (1989). Developmental programming of the shoot meristem. Cell 56, 225–229.
Taguchi-Shiobara, F., Yuan, Z., Hake, S. and Jackson, D. (2001). The FASCIATED EAR2 gene encodes a leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein that regulates shoot meristem proliferation in maize. Genes Dev. 15, 2755–2766.
Vega, S. H., Sauer, M., Orkwiszewski, J. A. and Poethig, R. S. (2002). The early phase change gene in maize . Plant Cell 14, 133–147.
Veit, B., Briggs, S. P., Schmidt, R. J., Yanofsky, M. F. and Hake, S. (1998). Regulation of leaf initiation by the terminal ear 1 gene of maize . Nature 393, 166–168.
Vollbrecht, E., Veit, B., Sinha, N. and Hake, S. (1991). The developmental gene Knotted-1 is a member of a maize homeobox gene family . Nature 350, 241–243.
Vollbrecht, E., Reiser, L. and Hake, S. (2000). Shoot meristem size is dependent on inbred background and presence of the maize homeobox gene, knotted1 . Development 127, 3161–3172.
Williams, L. and Fletcher, J. C. (2005). Stem cell regulation in the Arabidopsis shoot apical mer-istem. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 8, 582–586.
Yanai, O., Shani, E., Dolezal, K., Tarkowski, P., Sablowski, R., Sandberg, G., Samach, A. and Ori, N. (2005). Arabidopsis KNOX proteins activate cytokinin biosynthesis. Curr. Biol. 15, 1566–1571.
Zhang, X., Madi, S., Borsuk, L., Nettleton, D., Elshire, R. J., Buckner, B., Janick-Buckner, D., Beck, J., Timmermans, M., Schnable, P. S. (2007). Laser microdissection of narrow sheath mutant maize uncovers novel gene expression in the shoot apical meristem . PLoS Genet. 3, e101.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Sarah Hake for stimulating my interest in shoot apical meristems, Erik Vollbrecht for insightful discussions and for Fig. 2a, and Peter Bommert and Robyn Johnston for comments on the manuscript. I also acknowledge generous support to my lab from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture NRICGP.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jackson, D. (2009). Vegetative Shoot Meristems. In: Bennetzen, J.L., Hake, S.C. (eds) Handbook of Maize: Its Biology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79418-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79418-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-79417-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-79418-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)