Auxin flows from margin inwards to create leaf veins.

BERLETH/CSH

Leaf veins, just like roots and shoots, use flows of the plant hormone auxin to drive their patterning, say Enrico Scarpella (University of Alberta, Canada), Thomas Berleth (University of Toronto, Canada), and colleagues.

Models for leaf vein patterning have been based on either auxin flows or reaction–diffusion systems. The flow models had a hard time explaining how loops would arise. But “all the modeling so far has been based on the final pattern,” says Berleth. “Now flow can be reconciled with closed networks, although other types of cellular interactions may also play a role.”

His team used the auxin efflux protein AtPIN1 as an early marker of vein formation. Expression was found at a series of “convergence points” at the leaf margin, from where it led down paths that foreshadowed first the leaf's main central...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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