title: An epidermis-driven mechanism positions and scales stem cell niches in plants.
abstract: How molecular patterning scales to organ size is highly debated in developmental biology. We explore this question for the characteristic gene expression domains of the plant stem cell niche residing in the shoot apical meristem. We show that a combination of signals originating from the epidermal cell layer can correctly pattern the key gene expression domains and notably leads to adaptive scaling of these domains to the size of the tissue. Using live imaging, we experimentally confirm this prediction. The identified mechanism is also sufficient to explain de novo stem cell niches in emerging flowers. Our findings suggest that the deformation of the tissue transposes meristem geometry into an instructive scaling and positional input for the apical plant stem cell niche.
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gruel
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.; INRA-CNRS-ENS Lyon-UCB Lyon 1, Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2371-9996
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Landrein
authors.affiliation: Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2977-3683
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tarr
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2183-1976
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.; INRA-CNRS-ENS Lyon-UCB Lyon 1, Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
authors.forename: Yassin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Refahi
authors.affiliation: Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Arun
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1703-0137
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sampathkumar
authors.affiliation: INRA-CNRS-ENS Lyon-UCB Lyon 1, Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hamant
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.; Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Elliot M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Meyerowitz
authors.affiliation: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Bateman Street, Cambridge CB2 1LR, UK.; Computational Biology and Biological Physics Group, Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics, Lund University, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jönsson
mesh_terms: D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000378:metabolism*; D035264:Flowers / Q000378:metabolism; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018519:Meristem / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D015398:Signal Transduction; D055153:Stem Cell Niche; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; CLAVATA3; Computational Morphodynamics; Shoot apical meristem; Stem cells; WUSCHEL