Abstract:

Peptide hormones are involved in plant growth, development, stress resistance and many other life processes, and especially play a key role as signaling molecules in the short-range cell-cell communication. The procambium/cambium cells continuously generate xylem and phloem cells through division and differentiation, while maintaining their own proliferation activity. Recent studies have shown that CLE peptide hormones and their receptor kinases could determine the vascular cambium cell fate through a unique signaling transduction mechanism, therefore they are important in regulating the development of vascular system. Focusing on vascular tissue, this review introduces the CLE peptide hormone signaling pathway in controlling and influencing the division and differentiation of procambium/cambium cells in Arabidopsis . It is still unclear how CLE peptides affect the initiation, maintenance and differentiation of vascular cambium cell in woody plants. However, with the poplar genome sequence information available, people will further understand those important genes controlling the proliferation and differentiation of cambium meristem cells in trees, and hence achieve the purpose of regulating the secondary vascular system development and improving the wood properties by using functional genomics research strategy.

Key words: vascular system, CLE peptide, tracheary element differentiation inhibitory factor (TDIF), LRR-RLK, TDF receptor/phloem intercalated with xylem (TDR/PXY)