Signaling and gene regulatory programs in plant vascular stem cells

A key question about the development of multicellular organisms is how they precisely control the complex pattern formation during their growth. For plants to grow for many years, a tight balance between pluripotent dividing cells and cells undergoing differentiation should be maintained within stem cell populations. In this process, cell–cell communication plays a central role by creating positional information for proper cell type patterning. Cell‐type specific gene regulatory networks govern differentiation of cells into particular cell types. In this review, we will provide a comprehensive overview of emerging key signaling and regulatory programs in the stem cell population that direct morphogenesis of plant vascular tissues. genesis 49:885–904, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.