The morphology of plant fossils from the Rhynie chert has generated longstanding questions about vascular plant shoot and leaf evolution, for instance, which morphologies were ancestral within land plants, when did vascular plants first arise and did leaves have multiple evolutionary origins? Recent advances combining insights from molecular phylogeny, palaeobotany and evo-devo research address...

The vascular system in plants, which comprises xylem, phloem and vascular stem cells, originates from provascular cells and forms a continuous network throughout the plant body. Although various aspects of vascular development have been extensively studied, the early process of vascular development remains largely unknown. LONESOME HIGHWAY (LHW), which encodes an atypical basic helix-loop-helix...

The vascular tissues of flowering plants form networks of interconnected cells throughout the plant body. The molecular mechanisms directing the routes of vascular strands and ensuring tissue continuity within the vascular system are not known, but are likely to depend on general cues directing plant cell orientation along the apical-basal axis. Mutations in the Arabidopsis gene MONOPTEROS (MP)...

Vascular wilts are among the most destructive plant diseases that occur in annual crops as well as in woody perennials. These diseases are generally caused by soil-borne bacteria, fungi, and oomycetes that infect through the roots and enter the water-conducting xylem vessels where they proliferate and obstruct the transportation of water and minerals. As a consequence, leaves wilt and die, whic...

Hydrogen isotopic ratios of terrestrial plant leaf waxes (δD) have been widely used for paleoclimate reconstructions. However, underlying controls for the observed large variations in leaf wax δD values in different terrestrial vascular plants are still poorly understood, hampering quantitative paleoclimate interpretation. Here we report plant leaf wax and source water δD values from 102 plant ...

Vascular tissue differentiation is essential to enable plant growth and follows well-structured and complex developmental patterns. Based on recent data obtained from Arabidopsis and Populus, advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of vascular system development are reviewed. As identified by forward and/or reverse genetics, several gene families have been shown to be involved in t...

Despite the crucial role of carbon transport in whole plant physiology and its impact on plant-environment interactions and ecosystem function, relatively little research has tried to examine how phloem physiology impacts plant ecology. In this review, we highlight several areas of active research where inquiry into phloem physiology has increased our understanding of whole plant function and e...

Increasing numbers of plant scientists are recognizing the importance of hydraulic design in determining plant function. Hydraulic design – which can be broadly defined as the functional properties of the plant vascular system – is a determinant not only of plant water balance but also of photosynthetic rates and ecological niche differentiation. Classic approaches (Tyree & Zimmermann, 2002) an...

Abstract Plant vascular pathogens are one kind of destructive in agricultural production. However, mechanisms behind the pathogen-recognition and subsequent defense responses plants not well known. A recent pioneering study on plant immunity discovered a conserved MKP1-MPK-MYB signaling cascade that activates lignin biosynthesis tissues to confer resistance both monocot rice dicot Arabidopsis. ...