From fragments to morphogenesis: NMR spectroscopy of metabolites in the apex of the roots of onion

Abstract

Investigation of the mechanisms of morphogenesis is one of the central problems of biology. From the viewpoint of biophysics, the process of morphogenesis is reduced to the problem of assembling the whole from its fragments [1]. It can be assumed that, in the process of morphogenesis taking place under adverse environment impacts, adaptation proceeds from the bottom up. The lower levels involved in the assembly of the whole are adapted better; as a result of this adap� tation, assembly at the upper levels will be either dis� turbed or, at best, decelerated. In order to correctly formulate a solution to this problem, it is necessary to determine at the previous hierarchical levels the qual� ity and quantity of “fragments” involved in the assem� bly of the whole, compare the fragments and the result of their assembly, and study their kinetic parameters. These assumptions formed the basis of this work. The apical parts of the roots of Allium cepa were used as a study object, and the replacement of ordinary water with heavy water served as a weak effect of the environ� ment. A large number of studies on the investigation of the bases of morphogenesis in the apical part of roots were carried out with different plants, in particular, with the roots of Zea mays, Allium cepa, etc. [2–4]. In recent years, apical meristems are considered as areas containing stem cells, whose activity is the key mech� anism in the morphogenetic processes in cells [5–7]. The morphological structure of these cellular zones and the involvement of different protein regulators in cell differentiation in the apical part of the root [7–9], the role of hormonal regulation of morphogenesis [10, etc.], the influence of various physicochemical condi� tions on the growth and differentiation processes in apical meristem cells [11–13], etc. are currently actively studied today.