Abscission

The abscission of organs takes place at discrete sites and at specific times during the life cycle of a plant. These observations suggest that the abscission zone comprises a layer of positionally differentiated cells that undergo separation from their neighbours in response to precise developmental and environmental cues. By studying mutants of Arabidopsis that exhibit an attenuated capacity to shed their floral organs, it has been possible to identify a number of genes that may play a role in both the differentiation of abscission zone cells and the timing of organ shedding. The possible applications of this knowledge to agricultural and horticultural species are discussed.

Keywords: abscission zone; cell separation; auxin; ethylene; cell wall degrading enzymes; mutants; arabidopsis

Figure 1. Sites of abscission.
Figure 2. Events associated with abscission in Arabidopsis and some of the proteins involved.
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Roberts, Jeremy A, and González‐Carranza, Zinnia H(Jul 2007) Abscission. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020089]