CELL DIVISION IN RELATION TO CYTODIFFERENTIATION IN CULTURED PEA ROOT SEGMENTS

One mm-thick segments cut 10–11 mm proximal to the root tip of germinating seeds of garden pea Pisum sativum were cultured in sterile nutrient medium containing auxin in the presence and absence of kinetin. In the absence of added cytokinin, pericyclic proliferation occurred, the cortical tissues showed no proliferation and were sloughed off, and a callus tissue of diploid cells was formed. In the presence of kinetin concentrations from 0.1–1.0 ppm cortical cells of the segments were induced to divide, beginning at the third day. From experiments with ³H-thymidine incorporation at different times of culture, from cytological squash preparations and from histological sections it was shown that the cortical cells stimulated to divide by cytokinin underwent DNA synthesis prior to division, were polyploid, and following cell division rapidly underwent cytodifferentiation at 5–7 days to form mature tracheary elements. At 10 days, when over 300,000 new cells had been formed per segment about 16% of these cells had formed tracheary elements. It was concluded that cytokinin, together with auxin, was essential for the initiation of DNA synthesis in the cortical cells, for their subsequent division, and finally for their specific cytodifferentiation.