Estimation of the Cell-Cycle Duration in the Root Apical Meristem: A Model of Linkage between Cell-Cycle Duration, Rate of Cell Production, and Rate of Root Growth

1997 ◽  
Vol 158 (6) ◽  
pp. 757-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor B. Ivanov ◽  
Joseph G. Dubrovsky
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thea van den Berg ◽  
Kirsten H. ten Tusscher

AbstractThe root system is a major determinant of plant fitness. Its capacity to supply the plant with sufficient water and nutrients strongly depends on root system architecture, which arises from the repeated branching off of lateral roots. A critical first step in lateral root formation is priming, which prepatterns sites competent of forming a lateral root. Priming is characterized by temporal oscillations in auxin, auxin signalling and gene expression in the root meristem, which through growth become transformed into a spatially repetitive pattern of competent sites. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of auxin synthesis, transport and perception for the amplitude of these oscillations and their chances of producing an actual competent site. Additionally, repeated lateral root cap apoptosis was demonstrated to be strongly correlated with repetitive lateral root priming. Intriguingly, no single mutation has been identified that fully abolishes lateral root formation, and thusfar the mechanism underlying oscillations has remained unknown. In this study, we investigated the impact of auxin reflux loop properties combined with root growth dynamics on priming, using a computational approach. To this end we developed a novel multi-scale root model incorporating a realistic root tip architecture and reflux loop properties as well as root growth dynamics. Excitingly, in this model, repetitive auxin elevations automatically emerge. First, we show that root tip architecture and reflux loop properties result in an auxin loading zone at the start of the elongation zone, with preferential auxin loading in narrow vasculature cells. Second, we demonstrate how meristematic root growth dynamics causes regular alternations in the sizes of cells arriving at the elongation zone, which subsequently become amplified during cell expansion. These cell size differences translate into differences in cellular auxin loading potential. Combined, these properties result in temporal and spatial fluctuations in auxin levels in vasculature and pericycle cells. Our model predicts that temporal priming frequency predominantly depends on cell cycle duration, while cell cycle duration together with meristem size control lateral root spacing.


Author(s):  
Joseph G Dubrovsky ◽  
Kris Vissenberg

Abstract This special issue is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Albert Lionel Clowes, who discovered the quiescent centre (QC) of the root apical meristem (RAM). His discovery was a foundation for contemporary studies of the QC and RAM function, maintenance, and organization. RAM function is fundamental for cell production and root growth. This special issue bundles reviews on the main tendencies, hypotheses, and future directions, and identifies unknowns in the field.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5739
Author(s):  
Joo Yeol Kim ◽  
Hyo-Jun Lee ◽  
Jin A Kim ◽  
Mi-Jeong Jeong

Sound waves affect plants at the biochemical, physical, and genetic levels. However, the mechanisms by which plants respond to sound waves are largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of sound waves on Arabidopsis thaliana growth. The results of the study showed that Arabidopsis seeds exposed to sound waves (100 and 100 + 9k Hz) for 15 h per day for 3 day had significantly longer root growth than that in the control group. The root length and cell number in the root apical meristem were significantly affected by sound waves. Furthermore, genes involved in cell division were upregulated in seedlings exposed to sound waves. Root development was affected by the concentration and activity of some phytohormones, including cytokinin and auxin. Analysis of the expression levels of genes regulating cytokinin and auxin biosynthesis and signaling showed that cytokinin and ethylene signaling genes were downregulated, while auxin signaling and biosynthesis genes were upregulated in Arabidopsis exposed to sound waves. Additionally, the cytokinin and auxin concentrations of the roots of Arabidopsis plants increased and decreased, respectively, after exposure to sound waves. Our findings suggest that sound waves are potential agricultural tools for improving crop growth performance.


Genome ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander E Vinogradov

At a certain temperature, which is a compromise for temperatures at which the species are adapted, the relationship between genome size and cell cycle duration during synchronous cleavage divisions can be very strong (r = 1.00, P < 0.01) in four closely related frogs, suggesting a functional dependence.Key words: genome size, genome evolution, genome cytoecology, noncoding DNA, cell cycle duration.


Author(s):  
Ruben Perez-Carrasco ◽  
Casper Beentjes ◽  
Ramon Grima

AbstractMany models of gene expression do not explicitly incorporate a cell cycle description. Here we derive a theory describing how mRNA fluctuations for constitutive and bursty gene expression are influenced by stochasticity in the duration of the cell cycle and the timing of DNA replication. Analytical expressions for the moments show that omitting cell cycle duration introduces an error in the predicted mean number of mRNAs that is a monotonically decreasing function of η, which is proportional to the ratio of the mean cell cycle duration and the mRNA lifetime. By contrast, the error in the variance of the mRNA distribution is highest for intermediate values of η consistent with genome-wide measurements in many organisms. Using eukaryotic cell data, we estimate the errors in the mean and variance to be at most 3% and 25%, respectively. Furthermore, we derive an accurate negative binomial mixture approximation to the mRNA distribution. This indicates that stochasticity in the cell cycle can introduce fluctuations in mRNA numbers that are similar to the effect of bursty transcription. Finally, we show that for real experimental data, disregarding cell cycle stochasticity can introduce errors in the inference of transcription rates larger than 10%.


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