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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Long-term, High-resolution Confocal Time Lapse Imaging of Arabidopsis Cotyledon Epidermis during Germination

Long-term, High-resolution Confocal Time Lapse Imaging of Arabidopsis Cotyledon Epidermis during Germination

Published on: December 31, 2012

Developmental timing in plants.

Enrico Coen¹, Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz²

¹Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK. enrico.coen@jic.ac.uk.

Nature Communications

|March 27, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Plant development is timed by internal mechanisms interacting with growth and environmental cues. This coordination ensures developmental events occur predictably, from cell changes to overall maturation.

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Area of Science:

Plant biology
Developmental biology
Chronobiology

Background:

Plants display precise timing of developmental events across various scales.
Developmental timing in plants is crucial for coordinating biological processes.
Unlike artificial clocks, plant timing is intrinsically linked to growth and environmental factors.

Purpose of the Study:

To review mechanisms controlling plant developmental timing.
To explain the interplay between inherent and growth-dependent timing.
To elucidate how environmental factors influence plant developmental transitions.

Main Methods:

Review of existing scientific literature.
Use of simplified models to illustrate key concepts.
Analysis of growth-dependent and inherent timing interactions.

Main Results:

Plant developmental timing integrates internal cues with external conditions.
Growth and environmental signals modulate cyclical and progressive developmental transitions.
Both growth-dependent and inherent timing mechanisms are essential for plant development.

Conclusions:

Plant developmental timing is a complex process influenced by growth and environment.
Understanding these interactions is key to predicting plant development.
This review provides a framework for studying plant timing mechanisms.