A history of Arabidopsis as a model plant from WUSCHEL gene perspective

Abstract

Plants possess the ability of indeterminate growth and organogenesis. Uninterrupted development of aerial parts of plants strongly depends on the activity of the shoot apical meristem (SAM), where a pool of undifferentiated stem cells is kept throughout the plant life. The main function of SAM is cell proliferation and self-maintenance. Numerous genes functioning within the SAM have already been discovered, including SHOOTMERISTEMLESS, CLAVATA and WUSCHEL. The biological significance of WUSCHEL gene for specification of the stem cells fate was proven by various, performed over the years experiments. This was doable, also because the research was performed on Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism. How was the WUSCHEL gene mechanism of action discovered, and subsequently experimentally proven? In this review, we will address these questions, pinpointing also how the use of a model organism enabled WUSCHEL gene functional characterisation.