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Plant Pysiology cover - 2/14/2003
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Leaf senescence is a developmental program in which nutrients are recycled
from leaves at the end of their lifespan. In annual plants, these
recycled nutrients often support seed development. In deciduous trees,
the nutrients can be stored in Autumn to support the growth of new
tissues in the Spring. Thus leaf senescence is of great practical value
to plants, and the cover photograph of a maple tree by Jordan Hall at
Indiana University illustrates the aesthetic value of this process. To
further understand this nutrient-recycling program at a molecular
level, Bhalerao et al. (pp. 430-442)
have studied, using microarrays, the changes in gene expression that
occur as leaf senescence is initiated in poplar trees. Their work
reveals a broad range of genes which, at the mRNA level, change in
expression during leaf senescence (image from Rick Amasino).
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