Structural, physiological and biochemical aspects of embryo development in vivo and in vitro

顶端分生组织位于每个生长点，专门为植物体生产新细胞。分生组织在植物生长发育中的重要性可以用Ian Sussex教授的评论“The meristems make The plant”（Cell 56: 225, 1989）中的一句话来概括。在过去的资助期内，我们证明了茎分生组织的形成对生长素的扰动很敏感。此外，在离体胚发生过程中，虽然形成了茎分生组织，但随着培养时间的延长，茎分生组织的组织结构逐渐退化，并不能稳定地确定。另一方面，根分生组织的发育需要生长素。这些观察结果表明，生长素水平和胚胎环境因素可能改变分生组织基因的表达，从而改变细胞命运。我们还证实了细胞及其周围环境的氧化还原状态可以调节体外胚胎的发育。氧化还原环境会影响胚的质量，尤其是茎尖分生组织的质量。

Apical meristems are located at each growing point and are specialized for the production of new cells for the plant body. The importance of meristems in plant growth and development can be summarized by a simple statement from Professor Ian Sussex's review "The meristems make the plant" (Cell 56: 225, 1989). In the past funding period, we demonstrated that shoot meristem initiation is sensitive to auxin perturbation. Furthermore, during in vitro embryogenesis, although a shoot meristem is formed, it is not stably determined as its organization deteriorates upon prolong culture. The root meristem, on the other hand, requires auxin for development. These observations suggest that expression of the meristem genes and hence the cell fate could be altered by auxin levels and factors from the embryonic environment. We also established that the redox state of both the cell and its surrounding environment can modulate in vitro embryo development. The redox environment can influence the quality of the embryos produced, especially the shoot apical meristem.