Investigating the apical notch meristem, apical dominance and meristem regeneration in Marchantia polymorpha

Meristems are the growth centres of plants, and fundamental in understanding plant development, morphogenesis and vegetative propagation. Across all plant groups, the phytohormone auxin controls meristem maintenance, represses the emergence of new meristems (apical dominance) and mediates cellular reprogramming when new meristems regenerate following removal of existing meristems. The liverwort Marchantia produces clonal propagules (gemmae) featuring two apical notches that develop into functional meristems. This presents a tractable experimental system to study meristem developmental biology. I used laser ablation microscopy to precisely disrupt cells in and around the developing pre-meristem in the apical notches of germinating gemma, finding that the first cell row is indispensable. Within this layer, a contiguous quorum of stem cells is required for activity. Apical notches reorientate in response to damage, demonstrating that the apical notch stem cells act as a communicating population. Feedback from the stem cell population is necessary to maintain notch activity and generate the notch apex. These experiments show communication between notches and regenerating meristems. The apical dominance signal represses cell division and requires both sources and sinks, features of auxin-mediated communication. Central regions of the gemma could transmit these apical dominance signals, but the tissues of the gemma periphery could not. I present a model of Marchantia gemma and apical notch organization, involving intra-, inter-and extra-notch communication. This provides a framework for further study of meristem formation, communication and maintenance in Marchantia and improving knowledge of plant meristems more generally. Significance Statement Meristems are the growth centres of plants. Understanding how meristems function, how existing meristems stop new meristems emerging (apical dominance) and how cellular reprogramming regenerates meristems is central to understanding plant development. The model plant Marchantia offers a streamlined system whose evolutionary position makes its biology relevant to all plants. Marchantia apical notches display proliferative, regenerative and dominance behaviour typical of meristems. I used laser ablation to precisely disrupt cells in and around the developing pre-meristematic apical notch of the germinating Marchantia gemma, producing an improved model of Marchantia apical notch organization involving intra-and inter-notch communication characteristic of the phytohormone auxin. This will inform future Marchantia research and provides a simplified experimental framework to study more complex meristematic processes.