Vegetative phase change is the
juvenile-to-
adult
An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...
transition in
plants
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...
.
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
''Arabidopsis'' (rockcress) is a genus in the family Brassicaceae. They are small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress (''Arabidopsis thaliana''), one of the model organi ...
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. Th ...
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. miRN ...
''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 fu ...
s.
This
gene regulatory circuit
Genetic regulatory circuits (also referred to as transcriptional regulatory circuits) is a concept that evolved from the Operon Model discovered by François Jacob and Jacques Monod. They are functional clusters of genes that impact each other's ...
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 siste ...
, including
mosses
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and horn ...
.
[
]
See also
* Plant morphology
Phytomorphology is the study of the morphology (biology), 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 cons ...
* Heteroblasty
Heteroblasty is the significant and abrupt change in form and function, that occurs over the lifespan of certain plants. Characteristics affected include internode length and stem structure as well as leaf form, size and arrangement. It should no ...
References
{{reflist
*
*
*
*
Plant physiology