Vascular meristems, though less well known than their flashier sister the apical meristem, have perhaps the bigger job; they produce most of the biomass that makes up plant stems and tree trunks. The vascular meristems also produce the phloem and xylem responsible for the transportation of nutrients throughout the plant. It is the seasonal changes in growth rates from these vascular meristems that give rise to the rings observed in cross-sections of woody trees. Fisher and Turner have identified a mutation in Arabidopsis Lands-berg erecta that affects the organization of those tissues arising from the vascular meristem.
展开▼
