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Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Confocal Live Imaging of Shoot Apical Meristems from Different Plant Species
Published on: March 29, 2019
Cell division in the shoot apical meristem is a trigger for miR156 decline and vegetative phase transition in
Ying-Juan Cheng1, Guan-Dong Shang1,2, Zhou-Geng Xu1,2
1National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology (SIPPE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai 200032, China.
Abstract:
What determines the rate at which a multicellular organism matures is a fundamental question in biology. In plants, the decline of miR156 with age serves as an intrinsic, evolutionarily conserved timer for the juvenile-to-adult phase transition. However, the way in which age regulates miR156 abundance is poorly understood. Here, we show that the rate of decline in miR156 is correlated with developmental age rather than chronological age. Mechanistically, we found that cell division in the apical meristem is a trigger for miR156 decline. The transcriptional activity of MIR156 genes is gradually attenuated by the deposition of the repressive histone mark H3K27me3 along with cell division. Our findings thus provide a plausible explanation of why the maturation program of a multicellular organism is unidirectional and irreversible under normal growth conditions and suggest that cell quiescence is the fountain of youth in plants.
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