Plant Meristems Flashcards

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What is a plant meristem?

A plant meristem is a region where cells keep dividing to make new cells for growth.

Meristems are mainly found at the tips of roots and shoots, and in buds.

Cells in meristems divide by mitosis.

They are called stem cells because they are unspecialised and can become any type of plant cell.

Meristems make new cells by mitosis, and then these cells grow longer, so the root or shoot gets longer.

Plant meristems stay active for the whole life of the plant, but most animal stem cells are only active when young.

Cells near the cut can act like meristem cells, divide, and then specialise into new root or shoot cells.

It means to grow many new plants from meristem tissue so they are all genetically identical to the original plant.

Small pieces of meristem are taken, placed in a sterile nutrient jelly, and grown into many new identical plants.

Farmers or gardeners can quickly produce many plants with useful features, such as good yield or disease resistance.

Meristems can be used to clone rare or endangered plants so their numbers increase.

All the cloned plants are genetically identical, so a new disease could kill them all.