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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 53, No. 371, pp. 1047-1054, May 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Original Papers

Distinct nuclear organization, DNA methylation pattern and cytokinin distribution mark juvenile, juvenile-like and adult vegetative apical meristems in peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch)

Maria Beatrice Bitonti1 5, Radiana Cozza1, Adriana Chiappetta1, Donato Giannino2, Monica Ruffini Castiglione3, Walter Dewitte4, Domenico Mariotti2, Harry Van Onckelen4 and Anna Maria Innocenti1

1Dipartimento di Ecologia, Università della Calabria, I-87030 Arcavacata di Rende, (CS), Italy
2Istituto di Biochimica ed Ecofisiologia Vegetali, CNR, Via Salaria, Km 29,300, I-00016, Monterotondo Scalo, Roma, Italy
3Istituto di Mutagenesi e Differenziamento, CNR, Area della Ricerca, Via di S. Cataldo, I-56100 Pisa, Italy
4Laboratory for Plant Biochemistry and Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium

Chromatin organization, nuclear DNA methylation and endogenous zeatin localization were investigated in shoot apical meristems (SAM) during juvenile and adult phases of peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch). The aim was to examine the extent to which these parameters could discriminate the juvenile and adult SAMs. Seedlings (juvenile, cannot flower), basal shoots (called juvenile-like, because they exhibit juvenile macroscopic traits) and apical shoots (competent to form flowers) of adult plants were chosen. Nuclear chromatin exhibited chromocentres that were peripherally distributed in SAMs of juvenile and juvenile-like shoots, but were diffusely spread in those of adult shoots. These patterns coincided with a peripheral labelling of DNA methylation in juvenile and juvenile-like meristem nuclei versus a diffuse labelling pattern in adult meristem nuclei. During vegetative growth (from March to June), the level of nuclear DNA methylation was higher in adult meristems than in juvenile and juvenile-like ones. The immunolocalization of zeatin in juvenile SAM was in the subapical region, but adult meristems exhibited a widespread localization or a signal confined within the boundaries of the central zone. The extent to which the acquisition of a strongly zonated pattern of these parameters as markers of floral competence in adult SAMs is discussed.

Key words: DNA methylation, peach, Prunus persica, shoot apical meristem, vegetative phases, zeatin.


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