title: The concept of the eudicot shoot apical meristem as it applies to four Spiraea (Rosaceae), one Mentha (Lamiaceae) and one Euonymus (Celastraceae) cultivars based on chimeric analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Eversporting eudicots were sought to see if they behave like gymnosperms. Behaviour of eversporting gymnosperm chimeras indicates a single apical cell is present in SAM and it would be of interest to see if eudicot chimeras have the same behaviour.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four eversporting spireas, the pineapple mint and the Silver King euonymus were inspected for the fate of the yellow (mutant)-green (wild type) chimeras.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As with gymnosperms, unstable eudicot chimeras in the four spireas, the pineapple mint and the Silver King euonymus became stable yellow about 80 % or more of the time and 20 % or less became stable green.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The statistically significant preponderance of chimeric fates becoming all yellow suggests that a single apical cell resides in the yellow tunica. As with gymnosperms, descendent cells of the yellow replacement corpus cell eventually take over the corpus. Here is the first chimeric set of data to support the hypothesis of a one-celled meristem in eudicots rather than the traditional view of a muticellular meristem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Rd, Louisville, KY 40205, USA. rkorn@bellarmine.edu
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Korn
mesh_terms: D002678:Chimera / Q000502:physiology*; D029756:Euonymus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D027541:Mentha / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D018519:Meristem / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D031992:Spiraea / Q000166:cytology / Q000469:parasitology*