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| Author(s): |
Juliana Lacorte Cazoto
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2009-02-09 |
| Examining board members: |
Marcelo Carnier Dornelas;
Sandra Maria Carmello Guerreiro;
Tamara Canto Fonseca
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| Advisor: | Marcelo Carnier Dornelas |
| Abstract | |
Bryophyllum species from the Crassulaceae family show a rare feature: the margin of the leaf develops structures which detach from the mother plant and give rise to a new organism. These structures are known as 'leaf-plantlets' or 'bulbils'. However, morphological and developmental studies allowed some authors to classify such structures as embryos, and not just foliar buds. The natural formation of somatic embryos is a phenomenon restrict to a few plant species. Nevertheless in Bryophyllum this event seems to be part of the leaf ontogeny. This study aimed on the morphological and anatomical characterization of these leaf structures, in their different developmental stages, through scanning electronic microscopy and optical microscopy, in both Bryophyllum tubiflorum Harv. and Bryophyllum pinnatum Lam. The differential pattern of gene expression was also analyzed for the homologs of WUSCHEL, MONOPTEROS, CUP SHAPED COTYLEDON, YABBY e LEAFY COTYLEDON1 during the development of the leaf 'bulbils' by in situ hybridization. Taken together, the result of gene expression analyzes and those from morphoanatomy of plantlet development allow the classification of these structures as in planta somatic embryos, at least for B. tubiflorum. (AU) | |