The evolutionary trajectory of root stem cells

Abstract

Root stem cells are crucial for the establishment of roots and are therefore a major evolutionary innovation that enabled land plants to spread on land. Despite their importance, not too much is known about the origin and the molecular players installing and maintaining them. Although still fragmentary, the recent availability of new data for early land plants can be used to identify and analyze the conservation of key regulators of root meristems. In this review, we evaluate the possible conservation of important root stem cell regulators to suggest pathways that might have been important at the origin of roots.