ABSTRACT
It is important to briey review the general structure of shoot meristems. Shoot growth in mature plants is restricted to specialized regions that exhibit little differentiation and in which the cells retain the embryonic capacity for unlimited division. These regions, called apical meristems, are located in the apices of the main and lateral buds of the plant (Chapter 8). Cells derived from these apical meristems subsequently undergo differentiation to form the mature tissues of the plant body. Due to their highly organized structure, apical meristems tend to be genetically stable.
