Plant morphogenesis: long-distance coordination and local patterning.

The overall morphology of a plant is largely determined by developmental decisions taken within or near the terminally positioned apical meristems of shoots and roots. The spatial separation of these developmental centers emphasizes the need for long-distance signaling. The same signaling events may simultaneously coordinate differentiation within meristems and in the connecting vascular tissues. Recent genetic and molecular analyses not only confirm the proposed role of auxin as a coordinating signal across the plant, but also implicate auxin as a patterning signal in embryo and meristem organization.