ABSTRACT
Arabidopsis thaliana is a small fl owering plant, a member of the Brassicaceae family with very small ellipsoid seeds (between 0.04 and 0.17 mm² in Herridge et al. (2011), for example). After seed germination, characterized by radicle and hypocotyl emergence, two opposite cotyledons appear and the shoot apical meristem continues the production of leaves on its fl ank. Successive leaves expand with a well-coordinated program combining spatial and temporal patterns of cell division and cell expansion (Gonzalez et al. 2012). Leaf primordia emerge from the shoot apical meristem and expand forming a rosette covering the soil and reaching diameters generally ranging between 1 and 10 cm depending on genotypes and cultivation
1 Laboratoire d’Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux UMR759, INRASUPAGRO, Place Viala, F-34060 Montpellier, France.
