Organ regeneration in plants is independent of stem cell niche activity

A critical step in regeneration is recreating the cellular identities and patterns of lost organs long after embryogenesis is complete. In plants, perpetual (indeterminate) organ growth occurs in apical stem cell niches, which have been shown to re-establish quickly when damaged or removed (1,2). Here we ask whether the machinery of perpetual organ growth, stem cell activity, is needed for the phase of regeneration that leads to replenishing lost cell identities and patterning, or, whether organ re-establishment enlists a wider group of pluripotent cells. We adapt a root tip regeneration system to Arabidopsis that permits us to assess the molecular and functional recovery of specific cell fates during organ regeneration. These results suggest a rapid restoration of missing cell fate and function in advance of the recovery of stem cell activity. Surprisingly, plants with mutations that fail to maintain stem cell activity were able to re-pattern their distal tip and re-specify lost cell fates. Thus, although stem cell activity is required to resume indeterminate growth (3), our results show it is not necessary for cell re-specification and patterning steps. This implies a regeneration mechanism that coordinates patterning of the whole organ, as in embryogenesis, but is initiated from different starting morphologies. 1. Feldman, L. J. Denovo Origin of Quiescent Center Regenerating Root Apices of Zea-Mays. Planta 128, 207-212 (1976). 2. Xu, J. et al. A molecular framework for plant regeneration. Science 311, 385-8 (2006). 3. Gordon, S. P. et al. Pattern formation during de novo assembly of the Arabidopsis shoot meristem. Development 134, 3539-48 (2007).

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Sena G, Wang X, Liu HY, Hofhuis H, Birnbaum KD