Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Vascular Development

Abstract

The plant vascular system is a complicated network of conducting tissues that interconnects all organs and transports water, minerals, nutrients, organic compounds, and various signaling molecules throughout the plant body. It is composed of two major tissues, xylem and phloem, that are differentiated from the meristemic tissue, procambium. Although physiological functions of the vascular tissues are well documented, genetic networks that regulate the process of vascular development are still poorly understood. Thorough researches on several model plants, such as Arabidopsis, Populus, and Zinnia; molecular genetic, genomic, and biochemical approaches have provided significant insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying vascular development. An array of signals and signaling molecules, including receptor molecules, ligands, vesicle-trafficking components, and transcription factors, has been shown to mediate the specification and differentiation of vascular tissues and the vascular bundle patterning. Accordingly, future challenge in vascular biology is to understand how these signals are coordinately integrated to achieve optimized vascular development under a given growth condition.