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TERATOLOGY AND METAMERIC PLANT CONSTRUCTION
Author(s) -
GROENENDAEL J. M.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1985.tb03646.x
Subject(s) - hierarchy , biology , meristem , plantago , variety (cybernetics) , evolutionary biology , botany , computer science , artificial intelligence , political science , law , shoot
S ummary The growth of Plantago lanceolata L. has been described using metamers as construction units. The growth of each unit has been broken down into a sequence of four simple building instructions, two of which incorporate two or three alternatives. The resulting conceptual model has been tested against a variety of teratologies known to exist in Plantago lanceolata . All of these malformations could be explained in terms of either wrong steps, or wrong sequences, or both. There seems to be a certain hierarchy of control such that more malformations tend to occur at tertiary meristems than at primary meristems. For at least some of the teratologies, the nature of the control seems genetic.