The Dynamics of meristem cell populations

These proceedings are composed of three parts: 1) the individual papers, 2) their discussions, and 3) a retrospective summation of the meeting's deliberations. If we were to suggest a starting place for reading it would probably be the summation -- it attempts to place the various papers and discussions into a general context and to point out relevant ideas of current knowledge and of potentially useful avenues for further research. The papers and discussions deal more specifically with the individual topics. It is hoped that the tone and tenor of the meeting are somewhat reflected in its proceedings. The emphasis today in biological research is quite "ecumenical" in outlook in that often techniques and conclusions from one discipline have relevance and applicability to another. For example, the elucidation of the DNA synthetic stage during interphase was first accomplished with botanical material; this technique has since had a broad and significant role in medical research. Also, the pioneering and now classical studies regarding the effects of ionizing radiation on plant chromosomes were, and still are, the foundation for studying mammalian chromosomes: it required only the discovery of a hypotonic medium to achieve spreading of them so that similar types of analyses were possible. Plants and plant cells have many unique features which allow them to be useful either for the study of specific botanical problems, or for studying broad biological principles. When dealing with a single broad topic it is often very useful for scientists to meet and discuss their work in a relatively closed seminar type of setting. This was the format chosen for this meeting. The goal of the meeting was to achieve a better understanding of meristem organization and function in relation to meristems per se or in relation to uses of meristems for elucidating fundamental biological principles (i.e., in those instances where the meristem is the "tool" and not necessarily the subject). Though the scientists present at these proceedings variously considered themselves as morphologists or as anatomists, as cell biologists or as radiation biologists, nevertheless, each of them utilized a plant meristem as a tool. What resulted was something akin to the viewing of a multifaceted crystal, with different "angles" giving different colors, different types of illumination. It was inevitable that conflicting opinions should exist; it is hoped that they are reflected in the contents of this volume. In a meeting where the expertise of the audience is no less than that of the speakers, the discussions are frequently as The papers in this volume constitute a broad, but well-balanced portrayal of meristems both as subjects and as tools. The papers contain comprehensive coverage of many new and important developments with a bounty of new data and formulations. The discussions following each paper, and the conference summation, are in some fashion further amplification, further integration, and further interrogation of the information "bits" contained in the papers. Clearly, plant meristems have been and will continue to be useful vehicles for a variety of research endeavors. This assessment of meristems from a variety of viewpoints hopefully achieves a greater understanding of meristem function.valuable as the papers themselves.