Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (15)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, H.
Right arrow Articles by Ougham, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, H.
Right arrow Articles by Ougham, H.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, H.
Right arrow Articles by Ougham, H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 51, No. 352, pp. 1781-1788, November 1, 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press

Review Articles

Annuality, perenniality and cell death

Howard Thomas1, Huw Martin Thomas and Helen Ougham

Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3EB, Wales, UK

Abstract

This essay considers annuality and perenniality as quantitative traits and discusses the application of established and new genetic tools to the analysis of plant life histories. Annual/perennial status is a function of meristem determinacy in combination with the processes of cell death and disposal employed by plants to generate well-adapted anatomies and morphologies. Creeping perennials, like clover or bracken, seem to move around in the environment. They do this by extending into unoccupied space while the oldest tissues behind the growing and mature regions senesce, die and decompose. Trees do essentially the same thing, except that they develop vertically and the old dead tissue does not disappear but instead persists as wood. A root system is a kind of upended vertical perennial. The balance between exploratory growth and the wave of tissue death that succeeds it is a major determinant of perenniality. So although perenniality and annuality may appear to be dramatically different traits, extremes of behaviour can arise by a relatively minor change in the relationship between growth and death. This conclusion is supported by evidence from genome dosage studies, from the practical experiences of breeding perennial-type traits into annual backgrounds and from molecular cladistics. Applications of methods for the genetic analysis of quantitative characters are described, including the exploitation of introgression mapping in Lolium–Festuca and quantitative trait locus mapping in cereals and other species.

Key words: Cladistics, genome dosage, introgression, longevity, meristem, mapping, quantitative trait, senescence.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Crop Sci.Home page
N. L. Taylor
A Century of Clover Breeding Developments in the United States
Crop Sci., January 16, 2008; 48(1): 1 - 13.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Crop Sci.Home page
W. M. Williams, H. A. Ansari, S. W. Hussain, N. W. Ellison, M. L. Williamson, and I. M. Verry
Hybridization and Introgression between Two Diploid Wild Relatives of White Clover, Trifolium nigrescens Viv. and T. occidentale Coombe
Crop Sci., January 16, 2008; 48(1): 139 - 148.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J Exp BotHome page
D. Lammer, X. Cai, M. Arterburn, J. Chatelain, T. Murray, and S. Jones
A single chromosome addition from Thinopyrum elongatum confers a polycarpic, perennial habit to annual wheat
J. Exp. Bot., August 1, 2004; 55(403): 1715 - 1720.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Crop Sci.Home page
P. W. Morgan, S. A. Finlayson, K. L. Childs, J. E. Mullet, and W. L. Rooney
Opportunities to Improve Adaptability and Yield in Grasses: Lessons from Sorghum
Crop Sci., November 1, 2002; 42(6): 1791 - 1799.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J Exp BotHome page
L. D. Nooden and J. P. Penney
Correlative controls of senescence and plant death in Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae)
J. Exp. Bot., November 1, 2001; 52(364): 2151 - 2159.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.