Abstract
The vascular meristem comprising procambial/cambial cells localizes between phloem and xylem tissues and is essential for the indeterminate radial secondary growth of plant body. Previously, we showed that a CLE-family secretory peptide TDIF acts as an intercellular signal for stem-cell maintenance in this meristem. TDIF, which is secreted from phloem cells, is perceived by procambial cells via a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase TDR/PXY. This signal suppresses xylem differentiation of procambial cells and maintains the vascular meristem organization. However, how TDIF acts during the indeterminate secondary growth of vascular tissues remains unclear.
In this study, we aimed to analyze the function of TDIF signaling in detail during secondary growth. We generated promoter–reporter constructs for vascular marker genes including CLE41 (encoding TDIF) and TDR and introduced them into vascular mutants. Based on these results, we will discuss the function of TDIF signaling genes in secondary growth.
