Plants are made up of a large number of distinct cell types that originate from a single fertilized egg cell. How the diversity of cell types arise in appropriate places is one of the most fascinating and attractive research areas of plant biology. During the past several decades, due to the development of new molecular techniques and tools, advances in optical microscopy, and availability of whole genome information and mutants in the model plant Arabidopsis and other plants, great advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in cell fate determination in plants. Multiple mechanisms are used to generate cellular diversity. Asymmetric cell division is one of the primary mechanisms. As an example, asymmetric cell division enables one stem cell to generate a stem cell daughter and a daughter with a distinct identity. Initially equivalent cells can also differentiate to generate different cell types. This mechanism has been clearly demonstrated in the formation of multiple cell types during epidermis development in the shoot and root. Cell fate determination is influenced by both intrinsic factors, i.e, developmental regulators, as well as extrinsic signals, i.e., environmental stimuli. By using model systems like stomata, trichome, root hair and shoot and root apical meristem cells, ligands, receptors and transcription factors have been found to regulate cell fate determination. However, the details of signaling cassettes responsible for cell fate determination remain largely unknown. Plants are made up of a large number of distinct cell types that originate from a single fertilized egg cell. How the diversity of cell types arise in appropriate places is one of the most fascinating and attractive research areas of plant biology. During the past several decades, due to the development of new molecular techniques and tools, advances in optical microscopy, and availability of whole genome information and mutants in the model plant Arabidopsis and other plants, great advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in cell fate determination in plants. This research topic contains 12 collected articles, including 2 Opinion Articles, 5 Reviews, 4 Mini Reviews, and 1 Original Research Article. Hopefully, these articles will expand our understanding of the regulation of cell fate determination in plants.

Plants are made up of a large number of distinct cell types that originate from a single fertilized egg cell. How the diversity of cell types arise in appropriate places is one of the most fascinating and attractive research areas of plant biology. During the past several decades, due to the development of new molecular techniques and tools, advances in optical microscopy, and availability of whole genome information and mutants in the model plant Arabidopsis and other plants, great advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in cell fate determination in plants. Multiple mechanisms are used to generate cellular diversity. Asymmetric cell division is one of the primary mechanisms. As an example, asymmetric cell division enables one stem cell to generate a stem cell daughter and a daughter with a distinct identity. Initially equivalent cells can also differentiate to generate different cell types. This mechanism has been clearly demonstrated in the formation of multiple cell types during epidermis development in the shoot and root. Cell fate determination is influenced by both intrinsic factors, i.e, developmental regulators, as well as extrinsic signals, i.e., environmental stimuli. By using model systems like stomata, trichome, root hair and shoot and root apical meristem cells, ligands, receptors and transcription factors have been found to regulate cell fate determination. However, the details of signaling cassettes responsible for cell fate determination remain largely unknown. Plants are made up of a large number of distinct cell types that originate from a single fertilized egg cell. How the diversity of cell types arise in appropriate places is one of the most fascinating and attractive research areas of plant biology. During the past several decades, due to the development of new molecular techniques and tools, advances in optical microscopy, and availability of whole genome information and mutants in the model plant Arabidopsis and other plants, great advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms involved in cell fate determination in plants. This research topic contains 12 collected articles, including 2 Opinion Articles, 5 Reviews, 4 Mini Reviews, and 1 Original Research Article. Hopefully, these articles will expand our understanding of the regulation of cell fate determination in plants.

In recent years, the study of the plant cell cycle has become of major interest, not only to scientists working on cell division sensu strictu , but also to scientists dealing with plant hormones, development and environmental effects on growth. The book The Plant Cell Cycle is a very timely contribution to this exploding field. Outstanding contributors reviewed, not only knowledge on the most important classes of cell cycle regulators, but also summarized the various processes in which cell cycle control plays a pivotal role. The central role of the cell cycle makes this book an absolute must for plant molecular biologists.

The establishment of polarity is a fundamental feature in eukaryotic development. Polarity in Plants provides an account of current research into the mechanisms by which polarity is generated at the level of the cell, organ and organism in plants, drawing especially on recent work with model organisms. The emphasis is on the use of the techniques of molecular genetics to dissect molecular mechanisms. This is the first volume to bring together the diverse aspects of polarity in plant development.

The shoot apex, although tiny and enclosed in the apical bud, forms the whole of the shoot system of plants and has a key role in producing leaves and flowers. An appreciation of how it functions is essential to an understanding of plant growth. In this book, the questions of the manner and the speed at which the shoot apex grows, and the likely cellular processes that are involved in the formation of leaves and flowers, are examined at the biochemical, physiological, biophysical, molecular, and genetic levels. This book is the only one currently available that is wholly devoted to the growth and physiology of the shoot apex and its key role in the formation of leaves and flowers.

First published in 1950, this monograph on the morphology of flowering plants explores the relationship between philosophy and botany.

Patterns in Plant Development offers an introduction to the development of the whole plant.

This series was established to create comprehensive treatises on specific topics in developmental biology. Such volumes serve a useful role in developmental biology, which is a very diverse field that receives contributions from a wide variety of disciplines. This series is a meeting ground for the various practi tioners of this science, facilitating an integration of heterogeneous information on specific topics. Each volume is comprised of chapters selected to provide the conceptual basis for a comprehensive understanding of its topic as well as an analysis of the key experiments upon which that understanding is based. The specialist in any aspect of developmental biology should understand the experimental back ground of the specialty and be able to place that body of information in context, in order to ascertain where additional research would be fruitful. The creative process then generates new experiments. This series is intended to be a vital link in that ongoing process of learning and discovery.