Plants are sessile organisms which are able to overcome environmental adversities due to their exceptional developmental plasticity, an attribute mainly conferred by the meristems. In these specialized tissues are found the self-renewing stem cells that maintain the meristematic identity, as well as the derived cellular progenies involved in the formation of several tissues and new organs. The diversity of cellular identities in both apical meristems and surrounding tissues is tightly controlled by positional exchange of intercellular signals such as transcription factors and plant hormones. The various cues acting on meristematic activity regulation are integrated in signaling networks that have been discovered in plant models, thereby, improving our understanding in this field of research. Currently, increasing interest has been observed in comparative analyses regarding the conservation of the developmental mechanisms controlling the meristematic activity among different plant species.
hormones; plant growth; stem cells; transcription factors
