Vegetative phase change is the
juvenile-to-
adult transition in
plants
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
.
This transition is distinct from the
reproductive transition and is most prolonged and pronounced in
woody species. Manipulating phase change may be an important avenue for plant improvement.
In the model plant ''
Arabidopsis thaliana'', vegetative phase change is relatively subtle: leaves become more curled, with an increased number of abaxial trichomes, and increased serration.
Studies in ''A. thaliana'' and
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
identified
microRNA
MicroRNA (miRNA) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNA molecules containing 21 to 23 nucleotides. Found in plants, animals and some viruses, miRNAs are involved in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. mi ...
''MIR156'' genes as master regulators of phase change, through their regulation of
SQUAMOSA-PROMOTER-BINDING-LIKE (SBP/SPL)
transcription factor
In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding to a specific DNA sequence. The f ...
s.
This
gene regulatory circuit appears to be conserved (with variations) in all
land plants
The Embryophyta (), or land plants, are the most familiar group of green plants that comprise vegetation on Earth. Embryophytes () have a common ancestor with green algae, having emerged within the Phragmoplastophyta clade of green algae as sist ...
, including
mosses.
[
]
See also
* Plant morphology
Phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants.Raven, P. H., R. F. Evert, & S. E. Eichhorn. ''Biology of Plants'', 7th ed., page 9. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2005). . This is usually considered distinct from ...
* Heteroblasty
References
{{reflist
*
*
*
*
Plant physiology