Cryptic floral determination: stem explants from vegetative tobacco plants have the capacity to regenerate floral shoots.

The developmental fates of shoots regenerated in culture and in situ by stem tissues of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Wisconsin 38 from different positions along the main axes of plants at different ages have been characterized. It was expected that explants from vegetative plants would not have the capacity to produce floral shoots. Contrary to the expected result, a small percentage (about 0.2%) of the shoots formed from cultured stem explants taken from young, vegetative plants were floral, i.e., produced a small number of nodes and then a flower. A larger percentage (about 2%) of the shoots formed by explants from the same region of plants which had flowered were floral. The largest percentage (76%) of floral shoots arose from explants taken from the inflorescence. Internode cells which were stimulated to divide and undergo organogenesis in situ after decapitation of the plant also produced few-noded, floral shoots with apical internode tissues producing many such floral shoots and basal internode tissues producing few such floral shoots. These results indicate that the capacity to form a flower is a visible expression of a cryptic developmental state which is quantitatively but not qualitatively controlled in time and space.