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Effects of auxin on the spatial distribution of cell division and xylogenesis in lettuce pith explants

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Summary

Cylinders of pith parenchyma were tissue-cultured with their opposite ends on media which differed only in content of the morphogens auxin (IAA), sucrose, or zeatin. A range of concentrations of each of these morphogens applied at one end (none at the other end) resulted in distribution patterns of cell division and xylogenesis that were attributable to interaction between inductive levels and morphogen mobility. Auxin was crucial for tracheary patterns: large tracheary elements formed by direct differentiation of pith cells near the auxin source, smaller but still roughly isodiametric tracheary elements formed after cell division, and tracheary strands developed where, presumably, auxin transport had become polarized and then canalized. Xylogenesis was confined to regions within millimeters of the auxin source, and [14C]IAA studies showed a steep logarithmic concentration gradient along the cylinder. Patterns of tracheary strands and rings revealed that the pith explants retained some polarity from the stem from which they had been excised. However, the direction of flow of applied auxin was more effective than original polarity in controlling the orientation of tracheary strands and their constituent tracheary elements. It seems that, in tissues with little or no polarity, diffusive flow of auxin gradually induces polar flow in the same direction, together with an associated bioelectric current, and that this orients the cortical microtubules that in turn determine the orientations of cell elongation and of the secondary wall banding in tracheary elements.

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Abbreviations

IAA:

indoleacetic acid

NAA:

naphthaleneacetic acid

TIBA:

triiodobenzoic acid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Botany and Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Australian National University, 0200, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    J. Warren Wilson & W. M. S. Keys

  2. Plant Cell Biology Group, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT

    P. M. Warren Wilson

  3. Department of Biological Science, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho

    L. W. Roberts

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  1. J. Warren Wilson
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  2. W. M. S. Keys
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  3. P. M. Warren Wilson
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  4. L. W. Roberts
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Dedicated to the memory of Professor John G. Torrey

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Warren Wilson, J., Keys, W.M.S., Warren Wilson, P.M. et al. Effects of auxin on the spatial distribution of cell division and xylogenesis in lettuce pith explants. Protoplasma 183, 162–181 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01276824

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01276824

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